Angel Unawares
by autumnrose2010
Summary: Pregnant as the result of having been abused by her stepfather, Robin thinks that suicide is the only answer. She's stopped by a boy who mysteriously appears inside her house. But why does he look so familiar?
1. Robin

Robin's heart pounded as she stood poised over the bathtub with a razor in her hand. It wasn't so much that she was afraid it would hurt; however painful it might be, she was sure it would be over with quickly. Nor was it so much that she feared the afterlife; she'd never really given it much thought, but whatever it would be for her, it had to be better than what her life was like now.

She feared disappointing her mother, letting her down. She wasn't so much worried about Wren; her older sister had a life of her own in California, and she knew that _he _would certainly never shed a tear over her.

Her mind made up, she turned on the tap and held her wrist out, preparing to slash it deeply with the razor.

"No! Don't do it!"

Startled, she turned to see a tall, slender boy watching her. He had light brown hair, freckles, and soft hazel eyes. Something about him seemed vaguely familiar.

"How did you get in here?" she asked when she could speak again.

"Please don't hurt yourself, Robin." He sidestepped her question. "It's not worth it."

Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "How do you know my name?"

He held out his hand to her, ignoring her question once again. "Give me that thing."

"It's sharp," she told him. "It'll cut you."

"I don't think so." For the first time, he gave a slight smile. Too startled to protest, Robin meekly handed the razor to him. It disappeared as soon as he touched it, and she gasped in surprise.

"How did you do that?"

This time his smile was much wider. "Don't you remember me, Robin?"

She shook her head.

"I'm Danny!"

For a moment she just stared uncomprehendingly, and then it hit her like a bolt of lightning. _Danny!_

He laughed at the expression on her face. "You _do _remember me!"

"Why, yes, of _course _I do...but how..."

"I came back to keep you from doing a very foolish thing. You're only sixteen, Robin. You have your whole life before you, and you were just about to throw it all away."

Her eyes filled with tears. "You don't know."

"Whatever it is, it definitely isn't worth what you were about to do."

Robin stared at her feet. "I'm pregnant, Danny...by _him." _Briefly she glanced up to see that, rather than being shocked, he seemed to be simply waiting for her to continue.

"It started not too long after he married my Mom," she went on. "The way he looked at me always made me feel uncomfortable. I told Mom about it, but she said I was just imagining things. Then one day I was alone in the house with him when he came up behind me and grabbed me and forced me into the closet. He put his hand over my mouth so I couldn't scream, and then he made me take my clothes off and...do it with him."

Danny didn't say anything, but his eyes were soft with compassion.

"Afterwards he told me that if I ever told anyone, he'd kill me. I was too embarrassed and ashamed to say anything, anyway. He did it to me a bunch of times after that, and then one month my period didn't come. I bought one of those home pregnancy tests and took it, and it came back positive." She looked at him forlornly. "So you see, there's nothing else I can do!"

"Of course there is," Danny replied. "You have to tell someone right away!" He took her hand and led her to the police station. Although it was several miles from her house, it seemed to take no time at all, and she didn't get the least bit tired.

* * *

"I hope you're happy!" Robin's mother, Helen, glared at her daughter. "He's dead now, and it's all your fault!"

"No, it isn't," Robin replied. "I told the police what he did to me because it was the right thing to do, but I didn't make him hang himself in jail." Somehow she knew that it simply wouldn't do to tell her mother about Danny, at least not at this point.

"You lied about him to the police, that's what you did!" Helen's eyes blazed with fury as she confronted her daughter. "You had him arrested because you had a crush on him and was jealous that it was me he was with instead of you, and just look what happened! If it weren't for you, he'd still be alive!"

"It wasn't my fault!" Tears streamed down Robin's face. "I didn't want to do it with him, but he forced me!"

"You little whore!" Helen hissed. "Because of you, an innocent man is dead! I want you out of my house, right now!"

Robin was shocked. "But where will I go?"

"You should have thought about that before you did what you did." Helen's voice was cold, uncaring.

Devastated, Robin began to pack her things. She decided that the only thing to do would be to hitchhike to California and try to find Wren. With a deep sigh, she opened the door and left her house for what she was sure would be the last time.

No sooner had she stepped onto the sidewalk than she became aware that someone had fallen into step beside her and looked up to see Danny. Angrily she turned away from him and began to walk faster.

"Hey." Lightly he touched her arm. It was the first time he'd touched her in three years, and it felt perfectly natural and human.

"My life's even more screwed up now, thanks to you!" She jerked her arm away in annoyance.

"Please listen to me, Robin. I can help. I know of a place you can go."

"I'm going to California to find Wren."

"You don't have to go all the way to California. I know of a place much closer that can help you."

Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "What are you talking about?"

He reached for her hand. "Come on. I'll take you there."


	2. Our Father's House

"Welcome to Our Father's House. My name is Linda Curtis." The woman was about fifty, with perfectly coiffed brown hair and a heavily made up face. "The Lord placed a burden in our hearts to care for young women in your situation. We'll provide you with a safe place to stay, nutritious meals, and medical care, and then after your baby's born, we'll find loving adoptive parents for it. Unless, of course, you and your boyfriend are planning to get married."

Taken aback, Robin gasped. She hadn't considered putting her baby up for adoption; she hadn't really considered what to do about her pregnancy at all.

"Is that an option?" asked Linda.

"Danny's not my boyfriend," Robin told her. "It was my step dad who got me pregnant. He...forced me to have sex with him."

"I'm so very sorry that happened to you, dear." Linda seemed neither shocked nor saddened. "But you have to remember that, regardless of how it was conceived, your baby is innocent, and God loves him or her just as much as He loves you."

"I hadn't really thought about that," Robin replied. "After my step dad hung himself in prison, my Mom blamed me for it and kicked me out of the house. I was on my way to California to try to find my sister when I met up with Danny and he brought me here."

"The Lord must have sent him to guide your steps," said Linda. "Here at Our Father's House, you'll be safe and well provided for, but we expect you to do your part as well."

Robin was confused.

"You'll be expected to commit your life to Christ, if you haven't already done so," Linda explained. "Church is every Sunday morning at ten, and Bible study is every Friday evening at seven. The only excuse for missing either is illness, documented by a physician."

Robin glanced doubtfully at Danny. "Maybe I should have hitch hiked to California to look for Wren, after all."

"If you'd done that, you would have been picked up by a psychotic serial killer who would have raped and murdered you," Danny replied. "Everything's going to be all right, Robin. Trust me."

"Will I ever see you again?" Suddenly she felt desperate not to lose him again.

"I'll come to you as soon as you need me again."

* * *

_Robin was in her room reading a Judy Blume novel when Wren burst in, crying hard. "There's been a terrible accident!" she sobbed. "Becker was driving drunk and smashed his car into a tree. They don't know whether or not he'll live, and Danny's d-dead!"  
_

_It went through Robin like an electric shock. For a moment, she simply couldn't believe it. Why, Danny had been over only the previous weekend, talking and laughing and very much alive. Yet several days later, she stared at his pale, still face lying in his casket and was forced to admit that it was indeed true.  
_

_Wren sobbed copiously at the funeral, and for awhile afterwards, she seemed to completely withdraw from her friends and family, even her two besties, Jess and Darcia. Until a new boy, Gabriel DeMarnes, moved into town. It didn't happen right away, but gradually, over time, the old Wren returned._

_But what about Danny? Robin wanted to ask. How could her sister have so easily forgotten all about the boy who'd loved her?_

_One day Robin went to visit Danny's grave, taking with her one of the many sketches he'd drawn for her. Despite their four-year age difference, he'd never once treated her like the annoying younger sister who was always in the way. He'd always been very kind and patient instead, always treating her with respect. Then suddenly he was gone, and a chapter of Robin's life was over forever. Or so she'd thought._

* * *

After Danny had left, Linda took Robin to her new sleeping quarters. The room was small but looked comfortable. The walls were painted a pale yellow, and several framed Bible verses in cross stitch adorned the wall. It contained two single beds with fluffy quilts. A blonde girl lay on one bed, reading the Bible. She looked up when the door opened.

"Paisley, this is your new roommate, Robin," Linda told her. "Robin, this is Paisley."

"Hi!" Paisley smiled, revealing her braces.

"Hi," Robin replied shyly, setting her suitcase down on the empty bed.

"How old are you?" asked Paisley.

"Sixteen."

"I'm seventeen, but I'll be eighteen before my baby's born," Paisley replied. "I say 'my' baby, but really it belongs to the couple who are going to adopt it."

"Who are they?"

"I don't know them personally. They're clients of John and Linda's. They pay an adoption fee, and John and Linda match them with a birth mother."

"When I first found out I was pregnant, I was so scared," Paisley continued. "My boyfriend dumped me right away. I was planning to have an abortion, but Linda showed me this horrible video about what really happens during an abortion. It just made me sick! She also gave me tons of information on fetal development, and that made me realize that abortion was the taking of an innocent life, that my baby has at least as much of a right to live as I do."

"But how can you _do _that?" asked Robin. "How can you just give your baby to two complete strangers to raise?"

"A child needs _two _parents," Paisley said emphatically. "John and Linda carefully screen all their clients to make sure they're God-fearing, Bible-believing Christians, so I know my baby's going to a good home. Aren't you going to do the same thing?"

"I haven't even thought about what I want to do yet," Robin admitted.

"Well, you'd better decide soon!" Paisley exclaimed. "You don't want your baby to just languish in foster care for months and months."

Exhausted by the day's events, Robin fell asleep almost immediately that night.

* * *

The Friday night Bible study was a new experience for Robin, as her family had never been particularly religious. It opened with a prayer led by Amber, one of the other pregnant girls staying at the home, and was followed by a passage from the Bible read by Nicole, another of the group.

After the study was over, Linda had the girls go around in a circle and share 'what Jesus had done in their lives that week.' Most were stories of good health reports and family reconciliations. When her turn came, Robin had no idea what to say. "Um...I recently met up with a friend whom I thought I'd never see again," she finally said.

"Praise the Lord!" Linda exclaimed, and the other girls cheered.

* * *

Robin was sitting in church one morning when it happened. First she felt a terrible cramp in her abdomen, worse than any menstrual cramps she'd ever felt, and then there was a sudden gush of warmth between her legs. She looked down at herself and gasped when she saw that she was bleeding, heavily.


	3. Forever In My Heart

"I'm so sorry, Robin," the emergency room physician told her. "We've managed to get your bleeding under control, but unfortunately, we weren't able to save your baby. The good news is that, with a few weeks' rest, you should expect a complete recovery."

Robin had very mixed feelings. On one hand, she was relieved that she wouldn't have to go through pregnancy and childbirth, as the thought of both terrified her; and on the other hand, she couldn't help but wonder what a baby from herself and her perverted stepfather would have been like. Would it have inherited its father's violent, unnatural urges? Or would it have been more like her? Now she'd never know.

"He's in heaven." She turned her head to see Danny sitting in a chair beside her bed. "He had a chromosomal abnormality that would have made his survival on earth impossible, so God in mercy took him now rather than later."

"So I would have had a son?"

Danny nodded. "You'll see him again someday, and when you do, he'll be perfectly healthy and whole."

Robin felt a mixture of relief and loss. "I wonder if this is how your parents felt after you...after what happened to you."

"They were devastated," he told her. "I wanted so badly to comfort them, to tell them I was fine, better than fine, but unfortunately, it wasn't possible."

"But why wasn't it possible? Why couldn't you have gone to them like you came to me?"

"I was still too new, too unaccustomed to my bearings. To have attempted to cross back over in the state I was in then would have been out of the question."

"But you can go to them now, can't you?"

Danny shook his head. "It doesn't work that way. I volunteered to come back for you because I saw that you needed me. They've all adjusted well and moved on with their lives. To reappear to them now would disrupt the new life they've built together."

"So do you mean you'll just abandon me when you decide I don't need you anymore?" Robin demanded shrilly.

"I swear to you, Robin, I'll be with you for as long as you need me."

"And what if I never stop needing you?"

"Get some rest now, Robin. You're tired."

She was released from the hospital the following day. Danny was with her. "Where am I gonna go now?" she asked. "I can't go back to Our Father's House because I'm not pregnant anymore, and I can't go back home because my Mom's still mad at me."

"I'm taking you to the Social Services Department," Danny replied. "They'll find a good foster home for you, I promise."

Robin's eyes went wide. "But I don't want to live with strangers!" A thought occurred to her. "Please, Danny, can't we just go back and live with your family? I always thought they were so nice, and I know they'd be happy to have you back."

Danny sighed. "I already explained the situation there," he said patiently.

"Then couldn't I just stay with you?" she asked.

He grew thoughtful. "Let me see what I can do."

* * *

"It just hits you at the weirdest times," Molly said to her best friend, Bailey. "Yesterday, a new kid in school asked how many brothers and sisters I had, and without even thinking about it, I told him I had two big brothers. Then I remembered and said no, just one now. My other brother died."

"You never really get used to it," Bailey replied. Her twin sister, Brittney, had been killed in a car crash almost two years earlier. She and Molly had met in a support group for teens who'd lost a close relative. "People are always asking me if I'm an only child, and I'm always forgetting and saying 'no' at first."

They'd reached the library, where Bailey wanted to search for the lyrics to Brittney's favorite song. She wanted to include them in a special memorial service she was putting together for the second year anniversary of Brittney's death and had had no luck searching for them on the internet.

"Well, I'll see you around," Molly told her friend as she turned to head back home.

"Yeah, bye." Bailey climbed the stairs and entered the library, where her eyes immediately went to the circle of computer monitors at which various people sat. The back of one head looked strangely familiar, and it took Bailey only a split second to realize why.

"Brittney!" For that split second, she forgot that she was in a library. Several heads, including the one that had so commanded her attention, turned in startled surprise.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry." Bailey's face was beet red as she stammered her apology. "It's just that...you reminded me of my sister."

"That's all right," the girl replied. "Is your sister missing?"

Bailey shook her head. "She's dead."

"Oh, I'm sorry," the girl replied. "It's hard to lose someone you love, I know. My name's Robin."

"I'm Bailey. My sister's actually the reason I'm here. I wanted to look up the lyrics to her favorite song. I didn't have any luck finding them on the internet. It's kind of an older song. That's probably why."

"What song is it?" asked Robin.

"'Forever In My Heart' by the Rosebuds."

"Hey, I've got all their CD's!" Robin began, then remembered. _"Had _all their CD's."

"What happened to them?"

"They're still back at my house with all my other stuff, but I can't go back there 'cause my Mom's still mad at me."

"That's terrible! Where will you go, then?"

Robin shrugged. "My friend was going to help me find a place. He told me to just wait here in the library, but he never came back for me."

"You can come stay with us, if you like," Bailey suddenly decided. "I'm sure my folks wouldn't mind if you stayed in Brittney's room."

"Are you sure that would be all right with them?"

"I don't see why not."

Robin felt tremendously relieved. Maybe she'd already found a place to stay, after all.


	4. Wren

Bailey's mother, Susan, was very surprised to see Robin but readily agreed to the proposal that she stay with them, temporarily, at least. "Great!" Bailey exclaimed. "It's almost like having a sister again!"

Her words made Robin think of Wren. _It's really been too long since I talked to her, _she told herself. _So much has happened, and I need to at least let her know I'm OK._

Robin liked her new room. It was painted light pink and had a bed with a matching frilly pink quilt and even a pink lampshade. It looked very feminine, and joy of joys, it boasted a computer. Robin logged onto her Facebook account right away and clicked on her sister's profile.

_I'm with a new family now, _she wrote. _I had to leave home because of Bruce. I met Bailey Anderson in the library. Her sister died, so her family has room for an extra person. Her Mom seems really nice. _She hesitated. Should she tell Wren that Danny was back? Somehow she felt it should be a secret; yet, on the other hand, perhaps Wren had the right to know. After all, Danny had been _her _boyfriend, not Robin's.

_It was Danny who helped me find a home with the Andersons, _she finally wrote. _He's been back for awhile now. He's helped me a lot. If it weren't for him, I don't know what would have happened to me._

Taking a deep breath, she pressed the 'send' button and hoped for the best. Susan called her to dinner then, and she met Bailey's father, Paul, for the first time. He was a nice-looking man with a full head of dark brown hair and mournful brown eyes. Robin wondered whether he ever really smiled. To her he seemed permanently sad. She felt terribly sorry for him.

On Monday she started school with Bailey. It was a different school from the one she'd attended when she'd lived with her mother and stepfather. She was glad, as it would have been terribly awkward to have had to explain everything that had happened to her.

Over the course of the week, Robin slowly began to feel as if life was finally back to normal again. Soon she was busy with classes, homework, and after-school activities. On Friday night she went to a movie with Bailey and her friend Dara, and on Saturday the three girls went roller skating together. Wren was waiting for her at home when they got back.

"Where is he?" she demanded.

"What are _you _doing here?" asked Robin. Bailey just looked puzzled.

"Bailey, this is my sister, Wren," Robin said. "Wren, Bailey. What are you doing here, Wren?"

"I came to see him, of course. Where is he?"

"I'm right here." Suddenly Danny was there, dressed casually in t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers, as always.

"Danny!" Wren lunged at him and tried to hug his neck.

"You shouldn't have come here, Wren," said Danny. "You belong in California, with Gabriel."

"But _you're _the one I love, Danny!" Wren wailed.

Danny shook his head. "What we had is over, Wren. I came back for Robin because she needs me. _You _don't."

"But I _do _need you!" Wren protested.

"No, you don't. You have Gabriel now."

"But I gave my virginity to you!"

"And I gave mine to you." At Danny's words, Robin felt as if I knife had been plunged into her heart. So Wren and Danny _had _slept together.

"Well, doesn't that mean anything at all to you?" asked Wren.

"It did at one time," Danny replied. "But it doesn't anymore. Go back to California, Wren. That's where you belong now."

Wren was crying now. Danny turned away from her and looked at Robin. He held his hand out to her, and she took it. They walked along together silently for awhile.

"It upset you to find out that Wren and I had sex, didn't it?" Danny asked quietly.

Robin nodded. "It just seems so unfair! She voluntarily gave hers out of love, but mine was stolen from me in a very cruel way!"

Danny shook his head. "You didn't give it voluntarily, so you still have it."

"Danny, can you still...you know..." She blushed furiously.

"Why do you want to know?" he asked sharply.

She shrugged. "I was just curious. That's all."

"I still have a body, don't I? So I can still do all the things a person with a body can do. Look, Robin, we were young, only seventeen, and we made a mistake. Don't make the same mistake I did, Robin. Wait until you're older, and you're sure it's the right time."

"What _are _you exactly, Danny? Are you a ghost?"

He laughed. "Ghosts don't have bodies, do they?"

"Well, what are you, then?"

He grinned. "What do you think I am?"

She frowned in concentration. "An angel?" she asked after awhile.

"So you've heard of us."

"Well, of course I have! Is that really what you are, Danny? An angel from heaven?"

"That's where we come from, yes."

"So after someone dies, they go to heaven and become an angel?"

"It depends on what kind of life they lived. Not everyone qualifies."

"Is heaven really as wonderful as I've always heard it is?"

"It's even better."

"And you left all that just for _me?" _Robin was astounded.

"Sometimes we miss human companionship."

"But why me?"

He laughed again. "Why _not _you?"


	5. Robin's Poem

Robin's head spun from all the new information she'd just received. "So when do you have to go back?" she asked Danny.

"Not until I want to," he told her.

"So we can hang out together sometimes, then?" Robin asked hopefully.

"I'm all yours." He grinned and held his arms out to her. "What do you want to do?"

"Well, you know. Go to movies and stuff like that."

"What movie would you like to see, Robin?"

"Well, I didn't mean right _now, _necessarily. I just went to see a movie with some friends last night. I've got some homework and stuff I need to work on this evening."

"That comes first, you know." Danny looked very serious. "I know it didn't always for me, but I hope you'll learn from my mistakes."

In her creative writing class the following week, Robin's teacher, Mrs. Williams, asked the class to write a poem about someone who'd had a major impact on their lives for an upcoming poetry contest. Robin only had to think for a moment before composing hers in free verse.

_Danny_

_An empty chair at the table_

_A ragged pair of sneakers in the hall_

_A bicycle parked in the garage_

_Lyrics to a song never sung_

_Like the breeze on a hot summer day_

_You were here for just a moment, then forever gone_

_The pictures you drew for me_

_Memories of the times we shared together_

_I'll treasure forever in my heart_

Robin was so absorbed in her thoughts that she almost didn't even hear the bell ringing for her next class.

* * *

"What happened, Wren? God, I was so worried!" asked Gabriel.

"It's my little sister, Robin," Wren told him. "She was in a really bad car crash over the weekend. I had to rush right back to make sure she was OK. I didn't have time to tell you before I left."

"Is she all right?" asked Gabriel.

"Yeah, she was lucky. She just got banged up a little. She's already out of the hospital."

"That's good." Gabriel grinned. "Now, come here and let me show you how much I missed you."

* * *

"Today, I'd like to announce the winners of the poetry contest," Mrs. Williams began. "We have two honorable mentions, 'My Father' by Bryce Cousins and 'Aunt Rhonda' by Janie Phelps. The third place winner is 'My Sunday School Teacher' by Will Patterson, the second place winner is 'Mrs. Banks' by Leslie Summers, and our first place winner is...'Danny' by Robin Cartwright!"

_I can't believe it! _Robin said to herself. _That's the first time I've ever won anything in my entire life!_

"The winning poems will be displayed in the mall, and Robin's poem will go to district for the chance to win a fifty dollar prize," Mrs. Williams continued.

That Saturday, Mrs. Anderson went to the mall to look for curtains and took Bailey and Robin with her. As they walked past the food court, Robin saw where the poems were posted on the wall and noticed that Danny was standing there, reading her poem. She walked over to him, and he looked at her and smiled. "Nice poem," he remarked.

Suddenly she felt very shy. "I'm glad you like it."

"Did you really save them?"

"What?"

"Those pictures I drew for you."

"They're still at my Mom's."

"Oh." He looked a little sad. "Well, I appreciate it, anyway. I'm very touched that I made that much of an impression on you."

_Oh, Danny, if you only knew how much, _Robin wanted to say.

"Say, did you still want to go to that movie?" asked Danny.

"Sure!" Robin replied. "I'll check and see what's playing."

"Never mind that," said Danny. "Is there a particular movie that you'd really like to see?"

"Well, I've always wanted to see the original version of 'Ice Castles'," Robin replied. "But I know it wouldn't be playing anywhere now..."

"That's all right." Danny grinned. "I'll pick you up at seven. How's that sound?"

"Great! I'll be ready!"

She was dressed and eagerly awaiting his arrival when he showed up at exactly 6:55 PM that evening. He greeted Mrs. Anderson and Bailey politely, then turned to Robin. "Ready to go?" he asked her.

He took her hand and, with a gasp of surprise, she saw that suddenly they were standing in the lobby of a 1970's movie theater. Robin looked at Danny and saw that he now wore a white polyester John Travolta jump suit and elevator shoes. She looked down at herself and saw that she was wearing brown-and-yellow checked bell bottom slacks and a wispy yellow blouse.

Shocked, she looked back at Danny, who only laughed.


	6. Wren's Letter

"Well, we don't want to stand out from the crowd, do we?" he asked.

"The crowd?" She glanced around to see that all the other patrons were similarly dressed. Too stunned to say anything else, she went with Danny to buy the tickets and popcorn and soft drinks. "I can't believe how cheap everything is," she said in a low voice so that only Danny could hear her. "I've never seen prices like this."

"Me neither," he replied. "Cool, huh?"

Secretly she wondered where he got money from but thought that it might not be a proper question to ask. While watching the movie, she felt Danny's hand slip into her own, and a thrill went through her. "I hope you enjoyed it," he said as they were walking out together afterwards.

"I loved it!" she replied. "I wonder if Lexi ever got her sight back or not."

"Well, even if she didn't, she found out that she could still live a happy, successful life," said Danny.

"I couldn't imagine not being able to see anything but just light and shadow."

Danny laughed. "Well, you'll just have to be more careful on skates than she was, won't you?"

Robin grew quiet all of a sudden.

"Hey, what is it?" asked Danny.

She shook her head. "It just occurred to me that if Becker had been more careful...well, never mind."

"That really hurt you, didn't it?" Danny asked softly.

"Worse than anything in the world!" she exclaimed. "Wren was the one everybody felt sorry for, of course, but sometimes at night I used to cry in bed when nobody could hear me. I thought I'd never see you again. I didn't know you could come back."

"Only if there's a good enough reason," Danny replied.

"What was it like to be in heaven for three years?" asked Robin.

"It's kind of hard to explain," said Danny. "It's just more wonderful than you could ever imagine."

"Did you get to meet famous people who had died?"

"Oh, yes! I used to spend a lot of time hanging out with Kurt Cobain and Layne Staley."

"Really? Who else?"

"Oh, a lot of people. Too many to mention. Heath Ledger, River Phoenix, Corey Haim. Lots of others."

"Wow! And you left all that behind just for me?"

"Not only for you. There are several others."

Robin was suddenly alarmed. "Are any of them girls?"

Danny laughed. "One's an elderly lady with cancer, one's a drug addict with HIV, and the other's a little boy with Down's syndrome, although to be honest, his mother needs my help more than he does. You have nothing to worry about."

Robin felt ashamed. "Not that I have any right to be worried. It's not like I own you or anything."

Danny gently lifted her chin with his fingers and gazed into her eyes. "It's all right, Robin. I understand."

"To be honest, I can't even believe you wanted to go to a movie with me. I always thought that to you I was just a little kid."

"Things change, Robin. You've grown up a lot in the past three years."

She thought of something. "Are you three years older now, too? Or do you stop getting older when...you know..."

"It's hard to explain. Time is different up there. People who are little kids when they die grow up to be adults, but nobody ever grows old. Even people who die in old age go back to being young up there."

"So if you're almost grown up, but not quite, when you die..."

"You'll finish growing up and then stay young. But three years doesn't make a heck of a lot of difference."

'You don't look any older to me at all."

"And I don't feel any older, either." He grinned and put his arm around her. "So if you're sixteen, and I still feel seventeen, what's the difference?"

* * *

Cuddling with Gabriel in the afterglow following their lovemaking, Wren found her mind wondering back to the first time she'd ever made love. It had been awkward, sweet, and utterly unforgettable. Three months later, Danny's body had lain in a casket in the ground.

"What ya thinkin' 'bout?" Gabriel's finger lightly caressed her chin.

"Oh, nothing. Just the first time we made love."

"Ah." He grinned and pulled her closer. A few minutes later, she heard his snoring.

Still wide awake herself, she wondered what the best way of getting in touch with Danny would be. Did angels use the internet? She could write a snail mail letter to him, but where would she send it?

Acting on a hunch, she gingerly extricated herself from Gabriel's arms, made her way to her computer, and turned it on. When the search engine came up, she typed Danny's full name, Daniel Francis Greer, into it. Instantly she was directed to the find-a-grave web page, where once again she typed in his full name, his date of birth, 2-14-94, and his date of death, 7-15-11. Right away a photograph of his grave marker came up, and she had to swallow a lump in her throat.

At the bottom of the right side of the page, she was given the opportunity to leave flowers and a note. She clicked on the icon and was directed to a page where she could write a note for the deceased. After several minutes of careful thought, she began to compose her missive.

_Dear Danny,_

_Words cannot express the way I feel about you. When they told me that you were gone and I'd never see you again, that hurt worse than anything in the world. I wanted you back so badly, I would have done anything in the world to make it happen. When Robin wrote and told me that you had come back, for me it was like a dream come true. I can definitely understand your being upset about Gabriel, but honestly, he's nothing to compare with you. You're my first and only true love. Please tell me that you're willing to give our relationship another chance. I promise you won't regret it._

_All my love,_

_Wren_


	7. The Fight

"So where did you guys go?" Bailey asked Robin.

"To the movies," Robin told her.

"Cool! What did you see?"

"What movie have I been wanting to see for so long?"

"Magic in the Moonlight?"

"That's the one!" Robin didn't really like being dishonest with her new friend and foster sister, but she felt that the only option available to her at this point was to be deliberately evasive. Otherwise, what could she say? _I'm dating an angel? _Certainly Mrs. Anderson would send her to a psychiatrist, and she definitely didn't want that. Word would get around the school, and she'd be considered a 'nut case' and ostracized.

"How did you meet that guy, anyway?" Bailey continued. "He doesn't go to our school, does he?"

"No. He dated my sister Wren for awhile, but three years ago...he had to move away. He just now moved back."

"Oh yeah, now I remember. But Robin has another boyfriend now, doesn't she?"

"Yeah. Danny had only been gone for a couple of months when she met Gabriel."

"Boy, that sure was fast!"

"I know!"

"She sure seemed keen on getting him back, though."

"Yeah. Wren can be pretty fickle sometimes."

"I'll say! So she's back in California now, huh?"

"Yes, thank goodness, and I hope she stays there."

* * *

After composing the message to Danny, Wren turned the computer off, went back to bed, and was soon asleep. A short time later, Gabriel woke up and went into the kitchen to look for a snack. _Wren's been acting a bit strange lately, _he said to himself. _I wonder what's up with her? _After fixing himself a sandwich, he sat at the computer and turned it on. On impulse, he checked the 'history' tab to see whether Wren had been looking at any dating or pornography sites. He saw that the 'find-a-grave' site was listed first.

_That's weird, _he told himself. A thought occurred to him. _Danny. _Within seconds he'd pulled up the relevant page and was looking through the messages. He found Wren's with ease. _He's nothing to compare with you._

Gabriel finished his sandwich and began to pack. He was about halfway through when Wren awakened. "Gabe?" she asked. "What's going on? What the hell are you doing?"

"What the hell does it look like I'm doing? I'm leaving!"

"But why?" Wren wailed.

"You know damn well why. Why are you sending messages to some guy who's been dead for three years, telling him he's better in the sack than I am?"

Wren felt as if all the air had just been knocked out of her. "Oh, you found the message."

"Damn right I found it! If you've got a problem with my bedroom performance, why didn't you tell me to my face instead of sniveling to your dead former boyfriend about it?"

"I don't have a problem with your bedroom performance at all, Gabriel!" Wren whined. "It's just that..."

"Just nothing!" Gabriel exploded, tossing a pair of worn sneakers into a suitcase. "If you don't appreciate me, I'll find someone who does!"

"But I _do _appreciate you, Gabriel!"

"Yeah, right! Sure you do! That's why you're writing messages to some dead guy, telling him how bad you miss him and want him back?"

"I swear to you, Gabriel, I didn't mean a word of it!"

"Why did you write it, then?"

"I don't know!" Desperate, Wren struggled to find the right words. How could she ever diffuse Gabriel's rage? "I guess...I just got to feeling all sentimental and thinking about the way things used to be, but that doesn't mean I'm not happy with the way things are _now!"_

"You mean the way they _were. _They're not anymore!"

"Please, Gabriel!"

He ignored her and finished packing. "Where are you going?" she asked.

"Anywhere to get away from here. I'd imagine Noah could probably put me up for a few days until I can find a place of my own."

Wren threw herself across the bed and cried until there were no more tears left.

* * *

Sunday morning, Robin awakened and thought of the church she'd been required to attend while she'd been staying at Our Father's House. She hadn't returned to it since her miscarriage and wasn't sure why it had suddenly come to mind.

As she went about her usual morning business, memories of the few services she'd attended there still lingered in her mind. After eating breakfast, helping with the dishes, and getting dressed, she was just about to sit on the sofa watching television with Bailey when she noticed how sunny it was outside and decided to go for a walk. She was only mildly surprised when she saw that he was walking beside her.

"Nice day for a walk, isn't it?" he asked her.

"Gorgeous." It was crisp and cool but very bright. The leaves were changing colors and falling from the trees. It was a perfect autumn day.

"Hey, I just wanted to tell you what a great time I had last night," he told her. After seeing her home, he'd squeezed her hand as he'd said good-bye to her and, after making sure that she'd gotten inside safely, had disappeared.

"I had a great time too!" she said with a smile.

He grinned. "I'm glad you did."

"I was just thinking about the church I went to a few times when I was staying at Our Father's House."

"That isn't the only kind of church there is, you know," Danny told her. "There's a really nice one not far from here that I know of. How would you like to try it?"

"Oh, yes!" Robin exclaimed.

Danny didn't tell her about the message he'd received from Wren. He didn't want her to worry needlessly.


	8. Life Way Church

When they arrived at the church, Robin could see right away that it was radically different from the one she'd attended while staying at Our Father's House. Instead of the men being dressed in expensive suits and ties and the women wearing designer dresses and sporting hundred dollar hairstyles, everyone was casually dressed in t-shirts and jeans or similar attire. A few of the men had long hair, and some even had tattoos.

The sanctuary itself was very different as well. It was much smaller, and rather than expensive carpeting and padded pews, there was a plain wooden floor and wooden benches to sit on. Robin and Danny quickly found seats and waited for the service to begin.

The minister turned out to be a stout, middle-aged woman with short brown hair. Her name was Erin Vincent. "Welcome to Life Way Church," she began. "I'm so glad to have you with us this morning. To begin our service on this beautiful Sunday, please turn to page forty-two in your hymn book."

The congregation sang 'Morning Has Broken' and 'Everything Is Beautiful', and then after a short scripture passage, Reverend Erin began her message. "Here at Life Way, we accept you just as you are," she said. "We don't care if you're not dressed in the latest fashions, or if you arrived in a motorcycle instead of a Cadillac or a Lincoln. To us, what's in your heart is much more important than what you look like on the outside. When you read the Bible, you find that Jesus associated with prostitutes and lepers, the dregs of the society in which he lived. Rather than passing judgement on them, he showed them nothing but love and acceptance, and as his representatives on earth, we are called to do the same."

Robin listened raptly to the entire sermon. "Wow, I've never heard anything like that before," she said to Danny after the service had ended. "I didn't know churches like this even existed." Danny only grinned at her.

The two of them joined the line of congregants waiting to shake Reverend Erin's hand before leaving. "I really enjoyed your sermon," Robin told her.

"I'm glad you did," she replied. "Have you recently moved to this area? I don't remember ever seeing you here before."

"I just moved in with a new foster family and changed schools," Robin replied. "I'm Robin, and this is my friend Danny."

As Danny shook hands with the minister, Robin saw a knowing look pass between them. "I recognized you right away," Reverend Erin told Danny. "It's always an honor to receive a visit from one of you."

"It's my pleasure," Danny replied. "I wanted Robin to meet you."

He walked her home and bid her farewell, and she went inside, where she saw that Paul, Susan, and Bailey were already eating lunch. "Where were you?" asked Susan.

"I went for a walk with Danny and he took me to church."

"Well, it would have been nice if you'd told me before you left," Susan replied. "I was beginning to get worried about you."

"I'm sorry," said Robin.

"What church did you go to?" asked Bailey.

"The Life Way Church," Robin told her.

"I've heard of it," said Paul. "It doesn't have a very good reputation. Isn't that where all the trailer trash goes?"

Susan frowned. "That's not a very nice thing to call them."

Paul laughed. "I'm sorry, but it's true!"

"It's so good to hear you laugh," Susan remarked. Robin remembered Bailey's twin sister and felt a little bit sad.

* * *

Wren lay in bed, thinking hard. Perhaps she'd panicked prematurely over Gabriel's departure. After all, when Danny read the message she'd sent him, he was sure to understand how much she still truly cared for him...wasn't he?

She felt an empty, gnawing feeling in the pit of her stomach and realized that it was loneliness. She felt exactly the same way she'd felt at Danny's funeral three years before. She and Gabriel had been together for so long that she'd quite forgotten what it felt like to be all alone. Now, for the first time since she'd met Gabriel, she felt the icy fingers of loneliness gripping her heart and wondered how long it would take for Danny to read her message and respond to it. She prayed that it wouldn't take very long.

* * *

Bailey was playing the Sims that evening when she suddenly thought of her friend Molly from the sibling loss support group. She hadn't attended any of the group's meetings since Robin had moved in with her family, and she hadn't talked to Molly since the day she'd met Robin. It occurred to her that the arrival of her foster sister must have filled a hole in her life that she hadn't even realized existed.

On impulse, she picked up her telephone and dialed Robin's number. "Bailey!" Molly exclaimed, instantly recognizing her friend's number. "I missed you at the last meeting! How have you been?"

"Super busy lately. I'm sorry I haven't been in touch for so long. Remember that day we said good-bye in front of the library? Well, right after that, I met up with this girl named Robin. She needed a place to stay, so I invited her to stay with us for awhile."

"Robin?" Molly sounded surprised. "Danny's girlfriend Wren had a little sister named Robin. How old is she?"

Bailey suddenly felt her heart hammering in her chest. "Danny was your brother who died, right?"

"Yes. I thought you knew that."

"I'm sorry. I'd forgotten what his name was. He had a girlfriend named Wren who had a younger sister named Robin?"

"Yes. Why?"

Bailey took a deep breath. "I don't quite know how to tell you this. You'd better sit down."


	9. Molly and Adam

"What is it?" asked Molly.

"Are you sitting down?" asked Bailey.

"Yes!" Molly exclaimed impatiently.

"Your brother's back," Bailey told her. She heard a moment's silence, then the soft 'click' of the connection being terminated. _She doesn't believe me, _Bailey told herself. _I suppose I'll have to get Danny to contact her himself._

_But how will I do that? _was her next question. _I've never even really spoken to him. _She went to Robin's room and knocked on her door. "Come in," said Robin.

Bailey entered the room to find her foster sister sitting at her desk, busily scribbling words on lined paper. "Homework for Creative Writing," Robin explained. "Mrs. Williams liked my poem so much she wanted me to write a longer story about it. How I met Danny and what happened to him and all."

"I know the truth about him, you know," Bailey remarked.

Robin gasped. "How did you find out?"

"I met his sister, Molly, in a sibling loss support group," Bailey explained. "I just talked to her on the phone. She told me he'd had a girlfriend named Wren who had a younger sister named Robin. That's how I found out it was the same Danny. I told her he was back, but she didn't believe me and hung up on me. I was wondering, isn't there some way you could get Danny to convince her it's really true?"

Robin remembered what Danny had said to her once, about how he didn't want to disrupt the new lives his family members had made for themselves. "I'm sure he'll do that when he's ready," she told Bailey.

Just then Bailey heard her telephone and answered it to hear Molly's voice. "I'm sorry for hanging up on you," Molly said. "But when you told me Danny was back, at first I thought you were playing a mean joke on me. Then I got to thinking, what if it really _is _true, after all?"

"I swear to you, Molly, it _is _true," Bailey replied. "Robin can vouch for me. She's right here. Want me to put her on?"

"Yes! Please do!"

Bailey handed the telephone to Robin. "Molly?" said Robin.

"Robin!" Molly exclaimed. "I haven't heard your voice since..."

"I know," Robin replied. "I should have stayed in touch, but I didn't. Anyway, it's true about Danny. He _is _back. He took me to a movie Saturday night."

"Where is he now? Can I talk to him?"

Suddenly Robin heard a knock on the door and opened it to find Susan standing there. "Danny's here to see you," Susan told her.

Robin handed the telephone to Danny, who was standing in the hallway. "Your sister wants to talk to you," she told him.

"Hey!" he said. A moment later he laughed. "Of _course _it's me! How are you, Sis?" Sensing that Danny would appreciate some privacy while speaking to his sister for the first time in three years, Robin glanced at Bailey, and the two of them went into Bailey's bedroom. After what seemed like a very long time, Danny returned Bailey's telephone to her.

"Tomorrow after school, we're meeting Molly at Deelite," he told the two girls.

"But that's so far away!" Robin exclaimed.

"Don't worry. I'll get you there." Danny winked at her.

"What's Deelite?" asked Bailey.

"It's a frozen yogurt place in my old neighborhood," Robin told her. "It used to be a coffee shop called Bliss. Wren worked there when she was in high school."

Danny was waiting for Bailey and Robin after school the following day. He took Bailey by one hand and Robin by the other, and instantly they were standing just outside the door of Deelite.

"Wow!" Bailey exclaimed. "How did you do that?"

Danny only grinned and held the door open for the girls. "Shall we go inside?"

He bought frozen yogurt cones for the three of them and they found an empty booth to sit in. Less than five minutes later, Molly entered the store. Instantly forgetting his frozen yogurt, Danny jumped to his feet and rushed to embrace his sister. Never before had Robin ever seen such a joyous reunion. Danny bought a frozen yogurt for Molly, and they joined the other two girls, where Molly greeted Robin warmly and was introduced to Bailey.

"I told Adam about you last night," Molly told her brother. "I was up until past midnight trying to persuade him that it was really true. He can't get any leave time until the holidays, but he really wants to see you again."

"I'll visit him soon," Danny replied. "I know he's ready."

* * *

A week passed, and Wren heard nothing from either Danny or Gabriel. As the days went by, she grew more and more desperate. Then an idea came to her. Of course! Surely Danny would have been back in touch with his parents by now, wouldn't he have? Of _course _he would have!

Eagerly she dialed Danny's home telephone number, only to hear a recorded message that the number had been changed to an unlisted one. With a sigh of frustration, she got ready and went to the library. Gabriel had taken the computer with him when he'd moved out. She was still friends with both Adam and Molly on Facebook. When she reached the library, she found an available computer, logged on, and went to her Facebook page to see whether either of them were online and available to chat. Molly was there, so Wren clicked on her profile.

_Have you been in contact with Danny? _she wrote.

_Robin and I met up with him at Deelite last Monday night, _Molly wrote back.

_Is he there now? _Wren wrote, her fingers pounding the keyboard furiously in desperation. _Can I speak to him?_

_He's in Virginia spending the weekend with Adam,_ Molly wrote. _I'll tell him you want to talk to him next time I see him._

Wren sighed and left the library._ I guess there's nothing else I can do but wait some more, _she told herself.


	10. Wren Loses Both Ways

"It was really awesome to see you again," Adam told Danny as the two brothers were saying good-bye to one another. "That's something I thought would never happen."

Danny grinned. "Life's full of surprises, isn't it?"

"It sure is," Adam agreed. "What's amazing to me is that you're still the same little brother I had as a kid, only you're a lot more mature now."

"Of course I am." Danny laughed. "What were you expecting, some kind of freak?"

"To be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect, but I'm awfully glad you're still you."

A few moments later, Danny materialized inside Wren's apartment. "I'm going to have to ask you to please stop contacting my family members," he told her. "All you're doing is upsetting them. I've already told you it's over between us. No amount of begging and pleading is going to change that."

"You love _her _now, don't you?" Wren's voice was sullen.

"We've become very good friends," Danny acknowledged.

"I guess it'll make you happy to know Gabriel left me," Wren replied.

"Only because you refused to let go of the past and insisted on hanging on to it."

"I thought that if I left you a message telling you how I felt, you'd realize how much I still love you," Wren whined.

Danny shook his head. "All it showed was how stubborn and childish you can be."

"So there's no hope that we can ever be together again?" Wren asked forlornly.

"I already told you that once, Wren. It's time you accepted it."

"But I don't know what I'll do!" Wren wailed. "I miss you _so much!"_

He vanished, leaving her to wallow in despair.

* * *

"Robin?" Mrs. Williams asked as the students left to go to their next class. Robin obediently stopped by the teacher's desk.

"I just wanted to tell you that a girl named Annabelle Schneider won the district poetry contest," Mrs. Williams continued. "But your poem came in second place, which I thought was pretty good, considering the number of contestants there were. I'm proud of you. You did really well."

"OK, well, that's great...I guess." Robin gave a half smile. The only cash prize had been the fifty dollar award for the first place poem.

Swallowing her disappointment, Robin shoved the poetry contest to the back of her mind and went on with her day. Danny was waiting for her when school let out. As he'd spent the previous weekend in Virginia with Adam, she was really happy to see him.

"I'm sorry your poem didn't win first place," he told her. "I really liked it a lot."

Robin sighed. "Just the breaks, I guess."

"Hey." Danny gave her a quick embrace. "Second place is something to be proud of, girl, and one day, you're going to win first place at something."

"That would be nice," Robin replied. "So, how did your weekend with Adam go?"

"Really swimmingly, thanks. I'd forgotten how much fun we used to have together. Say, since you were such a good sport about last weekend, how about if I take you somewhere really special this weekend?"

Robin thought of something. "Can you take me to heaven and introduce me to those guys you hung around with up there?"

Danny looked amused for just a minute, then sadly shook his head. "Sorry. Has to be somewhere on earth."

"Hm." Robin propped her chin on her fist, deep in thought.

"Hey, no pressure. Just think about it and let me know later."

* * *

"Is Gabriel here?" Wren asked Noah.

"He just went to the store to pick up a couple of things," Noah told her. "He'll be back in a minute or two, if you want to wait."

Wren sat down on the sofa, which was strewn with dirty clothing, and watched whatever random reality program was on the television. She was just becoming interested in the show when Gabriel appeared.

"What are you doing here?" His voice held a note of unmistakable hostility.

"I just wanted to tell you that I realize now that I made a horrible mistake," Wren replied. "I swear to you, Gabriel, you're the only man I'll ever love. What I had with Danny was nothing compared to what you and I had together."

Gabriel held his palm up to her. "Talk to the hand."

"Please, Gabriel, I really mean it!" Wren's voice held a note of desperation.

"Forget it, Wren." Gabriel turned and walked away. "There's nothing left to talk about."

* * *

Robin thought long and hard about where she wanted Danny to take her for the rest of the week, and when he met her after school Friday afternoon, she had an answer for him.


	11. Venice

"This is _so _romantic!" Robin exclaimed as she and Danny floated down the Grand Canal in a gondola. Remembering a book report she'd done about Venice, Italy in middle school, she'd asked Danny to take her there.

"Sure beats Disney World, doesn't it?" laughed her otherworldly companion.

"Oh, no contest!" Robin replied. "Just look at all these ancient buildings! And I love the bridge!"

"It's called the Rialto Bridge," Danny told her. "We'll walk across it after the canal tour, if you'd like."

"Oh, I'd love to do that!" said Robin. "But right now I'm just happy to be here on the canal, looking at all the interesting things on the shore." She leaned back against the gondola's plush interior and sighed with contentment. The sun was setting, bathing the scene in an orange glow. Danny put his arm around her and held her close, and a ripple of excitement passed through her.

After the canal ride, they walked along one of the inclined covered ramps of the bridge and went into some of the shops. One was a flower shop, and Danny bought Robin a dozen red roses. She was too thrilled even to wonder where he got the money.

When they reached the portico, they walked to the side and stood looking down. "It's beautiful," Robin sighed.

_"You're _beautiful." He lifted her chin with his fingers, and suddenly his lips were on hers, warm and moist and urgent. His arms wrapped around her and held her tightly, and she felt an electric shock as the tip of his tongue touched hers. Then abruptly it was over, he'd let go of her and turned away.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled in a low voice.

"Sorry for what?" asked Robin. "That was great! I enjoyed it!"

"You're only sixteen," Danny replied. "I should have been more responsible than to have let that happen. It won't happen again."

"But all we did was kiss!"

"Which can lead to much more."

"So?"

Danny was solemn as he turned and began to slowly walk down the other inclined ramp. Robin got a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. She wondered whether the entire weekend was ruined now. "I don't think what we did was wrong," she said.

"I care for you a lot, Robin," he replied. "Too much to make the same mistake twice." He smiled and held his hand out to her. "Come on. There's lots more to see in Venice."

* * *

Wren wept as she stumbled back to her own apartment. Never in her life had she ever felt so utterly alone. Having been rejected by both Danny and Gabriel, she had no idea what to do next. If only Gabriel hadn't taken the computer...

Absently she opened her closet door and began to look through her clothes, and an idea came to her. She chose what she thought was her sexiest outfit, took a good half hour to apply her make-up, and then, when she finally judged her appearance to be acceptable, left to go to the bar down the street.

As she got closer, she saw that a policeman was standing by the bar's entrance and cursed under her breath. She knew she'd never be allowed in without being asked for her driver's license. Disappointed, she turned to leave when she heard someone call to her. "Hey, baby! Where you headed?"

She turned to see a strikingly handsome man who was wearing expensive clothing. He had longish dark brown hair and wore a gold chain around his neck. She knew that he was at least twenty-five, perhaps thirty.

"I can't go in there," she told him.

"Why the heck not?"

"I'm not twenty-one yet."

"Sure could have fooled me." He smirked. "Screw this place. I know of a place that's way cooler that won't even ask for your ID."

"Really?" In normal circumstances, alarm bells would be going off in Wren's head about now, but in her present state of mind, she wasn't even aware of that part of her psyche.

"Yeah, sure. Come on. It's only a couple of blocks from here." He nodded toward a shiny new red Corvette, and all doubts instantly vanished from her mind.

* * *

"He took you to Venice?" Bailey was incredulous. It was Sunday night, and the two girls were in Bailey's bedroom. "Does he by any chance have any angel friends?"

Robin giggled. "I'll ask."

That night she lay awake in bed for a long time, thinking about how much fun she'd had with Danny over the weekend. He'd seemed so alive, so enthusiastic, so full of _joie de vivre. _It was just so hard to reconcile that memory of him with the image of his body lying cold and still in his casket.

The following day after school, she took a walk to the cemetery where he was buried. She'd come here a half dozen times or so during the first year after he'd died but hadn't been back since then. She was filled with guilt when she saw that the marker was now partially overgrown with weeds. She reached to sweep them aside and cried out in pain as a thorn pierced her flesh.

"Here, let me see that." She turned to see the loving concern in Danny's eyes. He reached for her injured hand and kissed the wound, and it healed instantly.

"I should have come here more often," she mumbled.

"Why? I'm not here anymore."

"Well, _something's _still down there." She recalled once reading an article about a body that had been exhumed after having been buried for six years. New evidence had come to light that the man might have been deliberately poisoned. The article had described his body as being covered with mold and partially decomposed. Was that the condition of Danny's mortal remains now?

Robin shuddered involuntarily.

"It doesn't matter, you know." Danny's fingers softly caressed her cheek. "That isn't really me anymore. It's only the empty shell that I used to live in."

"Yeah." Robin's voice was almost a whisper.

Danny reached for her hand. "Come on. I'll walk you home."

* * *

Wren was surprised when the shiny red Corvette pulled into a parking space at a convenience store. "What's your poison?" her new companion asked.

She frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Beer? Wine coolers? Vodka? Schnapps?"

"But I thought we were going to a bar!" An icy finger had begun to creep along her spine.

"Nah, I don't feel like doing that anymore. I've got kind of a headache. I thought maybe we could just hang out at my place instead."


	12. Desperate People Do Desperate Things

"I don't like the sound of this." Wren opened the car door on her side.

"Where ya goin', babe?" asked the man.

"Anywhere to get away from you." She slammed the door shut and stalked into the convenience store, where she was faced with a dilemma. She was now too far away from her home to walk back, and she had no money for a taxi.

"I'll take you home." She turned to see Danny standing beside her.

"Oh, Danny..." She tried to hug him, but he stepped aside. At the same time, he extended his hand to her. She took it, and instantly they were standing outside her apartment. "Oh, thank you!" she exclaimed. She thought of kissing his cheek in gratitude but decided that he probably didn't want her to.

"I don't mind helping you out this one time," he told her. "But if you ever do anything that stupid again, you're on your own."

"But how will I ever find anyone else? I've lost both you and Gabriel now."

"Not like that." He vanished, leaving her alone and desolate.

* * *

"I had to bail your sister out of a bit of trouble she got into over the weekend," Danny told Robin as he walked her home. "She did something silly and almost ended up in a very bad situation."

"What did she do?" asked Robin.

"She accepted a ride from a stranger who offered to take her to a bar. For the sake of what she and I used to have together, I just couldn't let her be taken advantage of. I knew that guy was only trying to get into her pants."

Robin frowned. "That doesn't sound like something Wren would do."

"Desperate people do desperate things," Danny replied. "Now that Gabriel's out of her life, she's all alone for the first time, and without a man in her life, she doesn't know what to do with herself. She needs some time on her own to figure out that she's enough by herself before she'll be ready for another relationship."

"I used to admire her so much," Robin reminisced. "I always wanted to be just like her. She was so smart, so advanced, so...together. She could do things I could only dream of. When..." She looked down and blushed deeply. "When you started coming around a lot, I used to watch you two together and wonder what you did when I wasn't around. I must have been a terrible pain in the butt," she muttered.

Danny laughed. "It never bothered me when you hung around us. I always thought you were kind of cute. And I know exactly how you felt, because I was the same way about Adam. I always wanted to be just like him. I remember how tired he used to get of my always tagging along after him."

"I'll bet he felt terrible about about getting annoyed at you after...well, you know," Robin said softly.

"He used to cry sometimes. I used to watch him and wish so badly that there was some way I could tell him that I was OK, that I was better than OK, that I was just fine. Then I finally thought of a way. There's this rose bush right outside his window that had never bloomed before, until I made it bloom. My Mom and Molly were really happy about it, but he just brushed it off and didn't pay it any mind."

"Do you suppose you'll ever let your Mom and Dad know that you're back too?"

Danny grinned. "I'm sure it will happen some day."

* * *

For Halloween, Robin and Bailey dressed as red and blue M &amp; M's respectively and handed out candy to the kids who rang their doorbell. "I remember the last time I handed candy out with Brittney," said Bailey. "We were dressed up as Raggedy Ann and Andy. We had so much candy left over that it was months before it was finally all gone."

"How did she die?" asked Robin.

"She was coming home from a Christmas party, and the car she was in got broadsided," Bailey told her. "She was already brain dead before she got to the hospital. I'll never forget the phone call my parents got in the middle of the night. They didn't want me to go to the hospital with them, but I blocked the door and refused to let them leave the house without me."

"When I finally saw her lying there in the emergency room, she looked so peaceful it was hard to believe she was really gone. She had a thin little trickle of blood running out of the side of her mouth, and that was all."

"Her funeral was beautiful, but I was in so much pain that I barely noticed. I felt just like I'd been ripped in half. I never imagined anything could ever hurt as bad as that did."

Robin thought of Danny and wondered whether he'd known Brittney in heaven. She decided to ask him the next time she saw him.

He hadn't met her after school that day as he usually did on Fridays, but she hadn't really expected him to, as she'd told him that she planned to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters that night. When she still hadn't heard from him by late Saturday evening, however, she started to worry.


	13. Mother And Son Reunion

Saturday night, Danny called Robin. "I'm sorry for not being in touch sooner," he said. "I hope you didn't worry too much."

"Oh, no, that's all right." Robin was too relieved to hear his voice to get upset.

"Remember the little old lady with cancer I told you about?" Danny continued. "She passed over just this afternoon. She lived in a nursing home and was all alone because her family never came to visit her, which by the way, they're really going to regret. I sat beside her holding her hand as she took her last breath, and then I took her to heaven and waited until she was all settled in before I came back."

"Wow!" Robin whispered.

"Say, there's still time if you'd like to do something tonight."

"I'd have to get ready."

"Twenty minutes long enough?"

"Sure, I guess so."

"Tell Bailey she's welcome to come along as well. I've got a surprise for her."

Twenty-five minutes later, Danny rang the doorbell. He greeted Susan and both girls, then asked Robin and Bailey if they'd like to go roller skating. "I don't know how," Robin confessed.

"That's all right," Danny replied. "I'll teach you."

At the skating rink, a teenage girl was waiting for them just inside the entrance. Robin recognized her immediately from photographs she'd seen. "Brittney!" cried Bailey. The sisters embraced happily.

"Danny told me how much you missed me, so I came back to visit you," Brittney told her twin.

"How long can you stay?" asked Bailey.

"Only a couple of hours." Brittney looked a little sad.

"You mean you can't come home and see Mom and Dad?" Bailey was obviously very disappointed.

Brittney shook her head. "Sorry, no. I'm needed elsewhere, but we have a little while to skate together just like we used to. Come on!"

The sisters put on their skates and were soon sailing gracefully around the rink while Robin watched wistfully after them. "I could never skate like that."

"Of course you can," Danny told her. "All you need is practice!"

Robin put on her own skates, and her legs scissored frantically back and forth as Danny laughingly steadied her. He showed her how to balance, then to move slowly forward, and soon they were circling the rink together. "This is fun!" Robin exclaimed.

Soon the lights dimmed, a romantic song began to play, and couples began to skate holding hands or facing one another. Danny turned around to face Robin so that he was holding both her hands while skating backwards. Euphoria swept over her as she gazed into his eyes. "Being here with you is just so nice," he told her. "I love the way your eyes are shining tonight."

"I feel really happy when I'm with you," she replied. "Sometimes I even forget...I mean, lots of times, I forget and just feel like I'm with a regular guy."

"I feel just like a regular guy when I'm with you." He kissed her then, a soft, chaste kiss, not like the one he'd given her on the Rialto Bridge in Venice.

* * *

"Mom's talking about sending me to a psychiatrist and maybe even having me committed," Molly told Bailey, Robin, and Danny. It was Saturday, and the four of them were walking up and down the mall. "I slipped up and accidentally mentioned going horseback riding with you, Danny, and now she thinks I'm schizophrenic and hallucinating."

"I'll stay with you when she comes to pick you up and take you home," Danny told her. "She's ready."

Molly's eyes widened. "Would you? Really?"

Danny smiled and nodded.

"Great!" Molly exclaimed. "I've been wanting her to see you again for ages!"

Mrs. Greer came to pick her daughter up at four o'clock in the afternoon, as she usually did. Her eyes swept over the two other girls and then landed on Danny, and she instantly looked confused. He grinned. "Hi, Mom."

Mrs. Greer's mouth opened, then closed.

"It's really me, Mom." He took a couple of steps in her direction but didn't touch her.

She began to shake. "Is this some kind of joke?"

"It's no joke, Mom. Really, it's me."

"Oh, Danny!" She began to sob heavily, and he held and comforted her as the girls watched awkwardly. A few seconds later, she reached for Molly and pulled her into the embrace.

"You will come home with us, won't you?" Mrs. Greer asked her son once she'd regained her composure. "I...I'll set an extra plate for dinner. It'll be just like old times."

"Of course I will."

"Dad's gonna be so happy to see you again!" Molly exclaimed.

Robin longed to see the father and son reunion more than anything else in the world, but she understood how the family would want the first meal they'd shared together in over three years to be just the four of them. She looked into Danny's eyes and saw gratitude for her understanding. "We'll have you over for dinner soon, Robin," he told her. "I promise."

Mrs. Greer looked surprised. "Robin?"

"Long story, Mom," Danny said. "I'll explain over dinner."

As Robin drifted off to sleep that night, she couldn't help but wonder how Danny's reunion with his father had gone.


	14. Helen's Remorse

"I don't know why I let you talk me into this," Wren grumbled to her friend, Iceas. The two young women were part of a group who'd volunteered to visit a rehabilitation center where injured veterans were receiving physical therapy.

"What's wrong?" asked Iceas.

"This is just so depressing," Wren replied. "It's not like I want to do this as a career or anything."

"Just think about how depressing it is for the people who have to stay here all the time," Iceas pointed out. "I'm happy for the chance to help bring a little joy into their lives. Aren't you?"

"I guess so." Wren looked around balefully at the stainless steel equipment, the bars, wheelchairs, and other devices, the young men with various disabilities who were using them. Suddenly her eyes fell on a dark-haired young man of about twenty-five. His face had been severely burned, and one of his eyes was obviously a prosthetic. Both his legs had been amputated above the knee. A wave of revulsion mixed with pity swept over her, but in the next moment, the young man smiled at her; the warmest, friendliest smile she'd ever seen.

"Hi! I'm Trey," he told her.

"I'm Wren." Somehow she found her feet moving in his direction. He held out a hand to her, and she shook it. It was warm and firm.

"It's very nice to meet you," he told her. "I don't see very many pretty faces around here."

Ordinarily Wren would have been offended by his comment, but for some reason, she found that it charmed her instead. "I'm a student at the university," she told him.

"That so? I was a soldier in Afghanistan. Until a few months ago," he added wryly, glancing down at his stumps.

"How did it happen?" she asked.

"An explosive device detonated below me while I was on foot patrol," he told her. "The army doc told me I was lucky to be alive, but I don't feel so lucky."

"That must have been very painful."

"I don't remember a bit of it," he replied. "One minute I was walking around doing my usual thing, and the next, I was lying in the hospital with bandages all over me."

"I'm awfully sorry." She couldn't think of anything else to say.

"Yeah. Well." He gave a weak smile. "I suppose I'll get out of here eventually. Say, you got a boyfriend?"

"Not anymore." She wrinkled her nose. "He just dumped me after three years of being together."

"Somehow I find that hard to believe," said Trey.

"What about you? Are you married or in a relationship?"

"I was engaged," Trey replied. "We were gonna get married after I got back from Afghanistan. I never heard a word from her after my accident. My sister wrote and told me she's involved with my best friend back home now."

"I'm sorry." Wren felt terribly awkward.

"It's all right," Trey said bravely. "It just wasn't meant to be, I guess. Say, can you stay for awhile? I was thinking maybe we could have lunch together or something."

* * *

As Thanksgiving approached, Robin's thoughts turned to her mother. Every year at this time, it had been her, Wren, Helen, and sometimes Aunt Mari. What would it be this year? Her, Bailey, Paul, and Susan? Although she'd grown to care for them all very much, she had, after all, known them for less than a year. She'd known Wren, Helen, and Aunt Mari for her entire life.

"Why don't you give her a call?" asked Danny. The two of them were strolling hand in hand at the park.

"She never wants to see me again!" Robin objected. "She hates me and blames me for Bruce's death."

"It's been a couple of months," Danny reminded her. "She's had some time to think it over. Maybe she's had a change of heart."

Robin shook her head. "There would be no use in going back to her. She'd only throw me out again."

"You don't know that for sure," Danny replied. "Would you like for me to go with you?"

"She always liked you,' said Robin. "But of course she doesn't know you're back."

Danny grinned. "So there will be that as an ice breaker."

"An _ice breaker?" _Suddenly Robin was giggling uncontrollably, and Danny joined in.

"Let's go," he said, taking her hand again.

Helen threw the door open as soon as they knocked. "Oh, Robin!" she cried, immediately grasping her daughter in a warm embrace. "Can you ever forgive me?"

Robin was too startled to say anything for a moment.

"It turned out that he wasn't what I thought he was after all," Helen continued. "After he killed himself, I was going through his things and found stacks and stacks of child pornography magazines. _Stacks _of them, Robin. Pictures of girls who couldn't have been any older than twelve or thirteen doing _disgusting _things." She took a deep breath. "I thought he was so perfect at first, so loving and caring and sweet. He had me completely fooled. When it came out what he'd done to you, I simply refused to believe it. I can't _believe _I listened to him over my own child. I can't begin to describe how I felt when I was forced to confront the evidence of who he really was. I wanted so badly to find you and tell you how sorry I was, but I was afraid you'd really hate me after what I'd done."

"I was afraid _you _still hated _me," _Robin finally managed to say.

"Of course not, sweetheart," Helen replied. "I love both you and Wren with all my heart. You two are all I have left. I'd love to have you come back home...if you're willing."

"I live with this really nice family now, Mom. The Andersons. Their own daughter died almost two years ago. They've been really good to me. I'd hate to just leave them."

"Could you at least come for Thanksgiving? Wren and Mari both said they'd be here."

"Of course I will, Mom."

It was then that Helen noticed Danny for the first time. "Who's your friend? He looks just like Danny Greer!"

"He _is _Danny Greer, Mom. He came back."

"But that's impossible! This is a joke, right?"

"It's no joke, Mrs. Cartwright." Danny smiled. "I came back for Robin because she needed me."

"So there really _is _an afterlife, then."

"Of course there is. How could you ever doubt it?"

"And you knew what was going on with Robin."

"Of course I did."

"Then you must really hate me for what I did to her."

"Of course I don't. You love Bruce and so you couldn't accept that he'd really done what he did, so you blamed Robin for what happened, because at the time, there was no other alternative."

Helen slowly nodded. "You sound so mature, Danny. Nothing at all like the boy you used to be."

Danny laughed. "The things I've been through tend to do that to a person."

To Robin's surprise, Helen laughed as well. "I'm sure they do. Please say you can stay awhile. The three of us just have so much to talk about.'


	15. Thanksgiving

"So, how has it been going for you girls?" Aunt Mari asked her nieces. It was Thanksgiving, and the family had just sat down at the dinner table.

"I just met a new guy," Wren replied. "His name's Trey, and he was wounded in Afghanistan. I met him at the rehabilitation center. Some friends and I had gone there to cheer the veterans up, and we started talking and really hit it off. I've been back to see him a couple of times since then. He's supposed to go home in a couple of months."

"What will he do then?" asked Aunt Mari.

"He wants to start training for a desk job soon. You know, it's funny. I never before imagined that I'd ever be attracted to someone like him, but he's just so nice and so easy to talk to. I feel so comfortable around him, like I can tell him almost anything at all."

Aunt Mari frowned. "What do you mean, 'someone like him'?"

"Well, his face is badly burned, and he lost both legs."

Aunt Mari looked shocked for just a minute. "Well, it's good that you were able to look beyond all that."

"You know what? I'm not sure I would have been able to a year ago, or even six months ago."

"And what about you, Robin?" asked Aunt Mari.

"Mom and I had kind of a disagreement and I had to move out for awhile. I'm staying with this nice family, the Andersons, now." She blushed slightly. "Danny and I have been seeing quite a bit of each other, too."

"Danny?"

"Danny Greer."

"But didn't he used to be Wren's boyfriend? The one who..."

"He came back a couple of months ago," Robin explained.

Aunt Mari nodded in understanding. As she claimed to have a special relationship with the spirit world, the news didn't shock her at all. "And Wren wasn't interested in resuming the relationship?"

"I was already involved with Gabriel by then," Wren said. "I had no idea he was gonna come back. I thought he was gone forever."

"Oh," Aunt Mari said awkwardly. "Well, that usually _is _the case, isn't it?"

"He came back to keep me from doing a really stupid thing," Robin told her.

Aunt Mari's eyes widened in shock. She glanced from Helen, who was staring at the table top, to Wren, who looked puzzled. "Well, I'm glad that things seem to be going all right for you now."

* * *

"It was Bruce, wasn't it?" Wren asked Robin when the two of them were alone. "I knew that guy was bad news the first time I set eyes on him. I never should have gone to California and left you alone with him."

"It wasn't your fault," said Robin. "It was his."

"Well, I still feel bad that that happened to you," Wren replied. It occurred to her that it had been a very long time since she'd actually had a heart-to-heart chat with her younger sister.

"It's all right," said Robin. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask what it had been like to make love to Danny, to join their bodies together in the ultimate act of intimacy, but every time she thought about it, her heart began to beat faster and she just couldn't.

"Did you girls have a nice Thanksgiving?" Suddenly Danny was there, smiling at them. With the image of Danny and Wren, their bodies molded together in passion, still in her mind, Robin blushed deeply.

"What is it, Robin?" Danny laughed.

"Nothing," she said, shaking her head emphatically.

"Are you sure?" He smiled gently as his eyes sought hers.

She nodded.

"It was nice to see Mom and Aunt Mari again," said Wren, as if there never had been any awkwardness between herself and Danny. "How was your Thanksgiving?"

"It was wonderful," Danny told her. "Adam was able to visit. It was the first time all five of us had all been together since...you know." Watching her sister chat comfortably with her former boyfriend, Robin began to feel left out. Danny reached for her hand and took it, and she felt a little bit better.

"So how's it going with Trey?" Danny asked Wren.

"Fine." She was surprised. "I didn't know you knew about that."

"Of course I did. I was the one who sent him back."

"What?" Wren and Robin were both startled.

"At the time of his accident, his soul briefly left his body. I was there to meet him, to tell him that it wasn't his time to cross over yet, that even in a crippled and scarred body, he could still accomplish a lot and live a happy life. That a very special woman would come along and change his life forever."

"Wow." Overwhelmed, Wren didn't know what else to say.

* * *

"Is everything really OK?" Danny asked Robin later, after Wren had left.

"Yeah, everything's fine."

"So it wasn't something you just didn't want to talk about in front of Wren?"

"Not exactly. I was just, you know, wondering what it would be like." She couldn't meet his eyes.

"I think that maybe you spend a little too much time thinking about that." Danny's voice sounded gently reproving. "There will be plenty of time for that when you're a little bit older. No point rushing it. It will get here fast enough."

"But sometimes it just seems like it's taking so long..." Tears of frustration were in Robin's eyes.

"I know. But it will be here before you know it." Gently he kissed her lips. "Come on. Let's go roller skating."


	16. Forever Ago

"Great job!" Wren exclaimed as Trey reached the end of the parallel bars. He'd just received his prosthetic legs and was taking his first steps on them. With obvious great effort and concentration, he swung his hip around so that he was facing the opposite direction and slowly began taking careful steps that way. He wobbled and shook a little but managed to make it all the way back, where he sank into his wheelchair in exhaustion. "Whew! That was the hardest thing I ever did!"

"Way to go!" Wren cheered. She went to him and kissed his cheek, which both surprised and delighted him. The first time he'd seen his face in a mirror after his accident, he'd immediately concluded that no woman would ever want to kiss him again. Wren was so proud of him that she didn't even give it a second thought.

"I'm gonna get out of here soon," he swore to both of them. "And when I do, I'm gonna take you on a real date."

* * *

"Before the term ends for winter break, I want each of you to submit a compilation of twenty of your best works," Mrs. Williams told her creative writing class. "It can include poems, character sketches, essays, short stories, plays, or any combination thereof. The compilation will be due on the day of the final exam, and it will be one fourth of your total grade for the class."

"So have you decided which of your works you're planning to include in your compilation?" Robin's friend Trendi asked her after the class had ended.

"Well, I'll definitely include my poem about Danny, of course," Robin replied. "I really liked your poem about Halloween."

"Yeah." Trendi giggled. "Well, Halloween's my favorite holiday. It's when they show the coolest movies. Zombie movies are my absolute faves. How about you?"

"I used to like them a lot."

"You don't anymore?"

"Not since...never mind. Let's just talk about something else, OK?"

Trendi frowned. "OK. You started your Christmas shopping yet?"

"Not really." It occurred to Robin that she had about twice as many people to shop for this year than she'd had last year. Last year it had been just Mom, Wren, and Aunt Mari. This year it was all three of them plus the Andersons and Bailey...and Danny, of course.

But what did one buy an angel for Christmas? She had no idea.

That weekend she and Danny were strolling up and down the mall together and she asked him. He looked startled at first, then laughed. "Just think of me as a regular guy. Whatever you'd buy for a regular guy, you could buy for me."

"You mean like a CD or a computer game or something like that?"

"Exactly!"

The mall was decorated with stars and wreaths, and in its center was a giant tree with tinsel and balls, in front of which sat a man dressed as Santa, with a line of children waiting to sit on his knee. "I remember doing that when I was little," Robin remarked.

"So did I," Danny replied. "I used to always ask for train sets, race cars, and cowboy stuff. I remember the year I was three I got the coolest electric train set. My Mom still has it packed away in the attic.

"Aunt Mari made a Raggedy Ann and Andy set the year I was six," said Robin. "I still have them sitting on my bed at home." In a home decor store she found a pretty vase in rainbow colors that she thought Helen would like, and in the same store, she found a set of bowls for Paul and Susan. In the bookstore, she found a book called 'The Girl On The Train' by Paula Hawkins that she thought Wren might like and a book called 'The Prince Of Venice Beach' by Blake Nelson that she thought Bailey might like.

After that, they went to the pretzel store in the food court for a snack and then Danny took Robin home. It occurred to her that hanging out with Danny was, in many ways, just like dating a regular mortal, with the exception of adventures such as the excursion to watch 'Ice Castles' and the trip to Venice, or course.

* * *

Unlike the first time she'd visited the rehabilitation center with Iceas and the rest of the group, Wren looked forward to the Christmas party there. Unfortunately, it didn't look as if Trey would be able to go home by Christmas, but his recovery was coming along nicely and he could now walk short distances with crutches on his prosthetic legs.

The group arrived to find the center's physiotherapy gym cheerfully decorated with a table laden with food and a large punch bowl filled with red punch. Trey saw them coming and his face lit up. 'Your boyfriend sure looks happy to see you," Iceas teased Wren.

"He's _not _my boyfriend!" Wren insisted. Iceas only laughed.

Soft music began to play, and those who were physically able to began to dance. Wren went to stand with Trey. "You don't have to just hang around me, you know," he told her. "If you want to dance with someone else, please, feel free. I want you to enjoy yourself."

"No, thanks. That's all right. I'd much rather hang out with you."

"Well, OK. But you have to admit, I'm kind of boring."

"I don't think you're boring at all!"

The music stopped, and people began to eat and drink. Wren grabbed some cheese and crackers and punch and took them to share with Trey. "It's funny," he remarked. "I remember how, on Christmas two years ago, I was with Ashley at a Christmas party and she brought me cheese and crackers just like you just did. That seems like forever ago."

"I remember four years ago," Wren replied. "It was the Friday before Christmas when I met Danny's parents for the first time. It was in a crowded drug store, and 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' was playing. Funny how you remember stuff like that."

"Who's Danny?"

"My first serious boyfriend. He's with my sister Robin now."

Trey laughed heartily. "Still passing your hand-me-downs on to her, huh?"

"I hadn't really thought about it that way, but yeah, I guess so." Wren laughed along with him.


	17. To Us

"It just doesn't seem like Christmas without Wren being here," Robin remarked. She and her mother had just opened their presents to one another and were eating breakfast together.

"Well, I can understand her not wanting to leave Trey all alone in the rehab center over the holidays," Helen replied.

"Yeah, I know." Robin was glad that her sister had found someone to love and sincerely hoped that things would work out between her and Trey. "It's too bad he couldn't go home for Christmas."

"Well, hopefully he'll get to go home soon." They finished breakfast and Helen did the dishes while Robin went into the living room and turned the television on. 'A Christmas Carol' was playing. Although Robin had seen the movie many times, she still loved it.

Aunt Mari came over for dinner, and to Robin's surprise and joy, Danny arrived a couple of hours after that.

"Wow! I thought you'd spend the whole day with your family, especially since it's your first Christmas to all be together in four years," she told him.

"Well, I had to come by to give you your present, didn't I?" He handed her a small box wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper, and she eagerly ripped into it. Inside the box was a silver necklace with a charm in the shape of a figure eight lying on its side. There was a small diamond near one of the curves.

"It's called a lemniscate," Danny told her. "It means forever and ever, and yes, the diamond is real."

"Oh, Danny!" She was so happy that tears came to her eyes as she hugged his neck tightly. "All I got you was a CD."

"Well, that's all right."

"I'll get it." She dashed to her bedroom and returned with her present, which she handed to him.

His face lit up as soon as he saw what it was. "Snow Patrol! You remembered what my favorite group was!"

"It's their most recent CD," Robin said a little shyly.

"Wow, I can't wait to hear it!"

"Want to come in and listen to it?"

"Maybe later." He gave her a mysterious smile. "Right now I want to take you somewhere special."

"Where?"

"You'll see!"

Within moments, they were sitting inside a huge theater with rows and rows of seats, a five-tiered balcony, and a huge chandelier hanging down from the center of the ceiling. "Where are we?" Robin gasped.

"This is the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow," Danny replied. "We're about to watch a performance of 'The Nutcracker Suite'."

Soon the dancers came onto the stage and began to perform, and Robin was mesmerized. Caught up in the moment, all other thoughts vanished from her mind as she was swept up into the beauty and grace of the performance. It seemed to end far too soon.

"I could tell you enjoyed that," Danny chuckled when it was over.

"It was magic!" Robin exclaimed.

"You should have seen how your face was shining," Danny told her.

"My gosh, a forever necklace, the Bolshoi ballet...what else could a girl ask for at Christmastime?"

"That's not all," Danny told her.

"You mean there's even more?"

"You bet!" Although she was really still stuffed from Christmas dinner, he took her to a very nice restaurant where she drank a Shirley Temple and he drank club water and they talked.

"I can't believe you're going to all this trouble just for me," said Robin.

"Why? Don't you think you're worth it?"

"I suppose that's not really for me to judge, but what I meant was that we're not really boyfriend and girlfriend or anything."

"What would you call us, then?"

"Well, if you were still...you know..."

"In my mortal body?"

"Yes!" She sighed with relief. "If you were still in your mortal body, then of _course _we could be boyfriend and girlfriend. But normally people don't just stay boyfriend and girlfriend forever. They grow up and get married and have kids, but that's not really an option for us, is it?"

He looked just a little sad. "I don't know. I'll have to check into it."

"What do you mean, 'check into it'?"

"Well, you know." His eyes went upward. "But there's no hurry about that. Why do you keep trying to rush things?"

"I don't really know. I suppose I'm just the kind of person who's always thinking ahead."

"That's a good quality to have, but it's also nice to just live in the moment sometimes. You know, just like you were back there at the ballet. You were completely absorbed, like nothing else in the world even existed, weren't you?"

"Well, yes, come to think of it, I was!"

"And that's a great way to be, too."

"Is that the way it is in heaven?"

"All the time!"

* * *

On the night of December 31, Wren went to the rehabilitation center alone. It wasn't the first time she'd come to visit Trey by herself, but tonight was special. They were going to ring in the New Year together.

Trey was up walking around when she arrived. "Hi, Wren!" he called to her when he saw her. She went to him and kissed his cheek. "I'm glad you could make it," he told her as they found seats. "The guys wanted a war movie marathon," he explained. 'Twelve O'clock High' was now being shown, and was soon followed by 'Midway' and then 'The Big Red One.' As hard as Wren struggled to stay awake, she was fast asleep within a couple of hours, her head resting on Trey's shoulder.

The next thing she knew, Trey was shaking her awake. "Hey, Wren! It's gonna be 2015 in five...four..." Suddenly wide awake, she listened as the guys counted down to the New Year, then cheered and passed around glasses of champagne.

"To the New Year, and whatever it brings," Trey said as he touched his glass to Wren's.

_To us, _she silently added.


	18. Trey Moves In

"I have to decide which of my writings are good enough to include in my compilation," Robin told Danny. "I know I want to include my poem about you, but other than that, I just don't have a clue! I was hoping that maybe you could help me go through them and pick out the best ones."

"Sure, I'd be glad to," Danny replied. "Everything you've written looks good to me. You're so deep and introspective. This one about the rainbow looks really nice."

"I wrote that one rainy afternoon."

"I like this one about the circus too," Danny continued.

"That happened when I was five," Robin told him. "My Dad was still alive then. He let me ride on his shoulder."

"I can tell you remember it really well," Danny remarked. "Especially the part about the clown."

Robin laughed. "He was so funny."

"And this essay on courage is just incredible."

"Thank you."

"I'd say these are your best, but that's only my opinion." Danny stacked his favorites and handed them to Robin, who quickly leafed through them, then yawned.

"Come here." Danny lay back on the bed with his head propped up on his elbow. Robin lay beside him, and he put his arms around her and held her close. She rested her head on his shoulder and listened to his strong, steady heartbeat.

* * *

"This is my Mom and my sister Shelby," Trey told Wren.

"Nice to meet you." Trey's mother shook Wren's hand. "I'm Debra Whittaker."

"I'm Wren Cartwright."

"Wren's been such a great friend," Trey told Debra. "I met her back in October when she and some friends came by to cheer us up, and she's been coming around regularly since then."

"That's wonderful," Debra replied. "You don't know how hard it was for me when they told me Trey had been hurt," she continued to Wren. "I thought I was going to die. I just couldn't stand the idea of my baby lying there without his legs, but when I got here and saw how happy and upbeat he is, I felt so much better."

"All the credit for that goes to Wren," said Trey. "She gave me back my will to live again."

All Trey's possessions, including his wheelchair and crutches, were loaded into Debra's van, and she drove the short distance to Trey's new apartment. It was across the street from the community college Wren attended and the mall and was made of red brick. Vines bearing pink flowers covered one side, and in back was a swimming pool surrounded by palm trees. The living room had sliding glass doors. The walls were painted white, the kitchen floor was white tile, and the living room floor was brown wood. Wren thought that it looked very cheerful.

The four of them spent a busy morning moving all Trey's belongings into the apartment, and at about noon Debra went out for pizza while Trey, Shelby, and Wren rested and talked. "It looks like you're getting along really well on your new legs," Shelby said to Trey.

"It took a lot of effort and determination," Trey replied. "Wren can vouch for me on that score."

"It's true," said Wren. "So do you still live with your folks, Shelby?"

Shelby nodded. "Where's your Dad?" asked Wren.

"At home." Shelby sighed. "He said he had important business to tend to today."

"That's just an excuse," Trey said grimly. "The truth is that he can't bear to see me the way I am now. To him I was always the big, strong boy, the hero, the one who would make him proud. He just can't accept that fact that I lost my legs. That's why he won't come visit me. As long as he doesn't see me, he can keep pretending that everything's still the same."

"That's terrible!" Wren exclaimed.

"Yeah. It really hurts because I love him and miss him very much."

Debra returned with the pizza and they dug in. After lunch they returned to the task at hand, and by late in the evening, everything had finally been moved from the van to the apartment and stacked in piles in each room. "We can do the sorting another time," said Debra. "That's about enough for one day."

"Well, thanks for helping me move," Trey replied.

"No problem at all," said Debra. "Glad to do it." She and Shelby hugged Trey good-bye and left, and Trey and Wren were alone together for the first time. Wren recalled the first time she'd been alone with Danny and her heart began to beat faster in anticipation. She quickly glanced at Trey to see that he seemed a bit uneasy as well, his one eye darting around to finally rest on her.

"I really appreciate you coming along to help," he told her. "I know you didn't have to."

"That's OK." Suddenly she felt quite shy.

"Hey, when I get this place fixed up, I can have you over for dinner and to watch movies." Trey looked dreamy. "And when I start driving again, we can go for rides and I can take you out to nice places."

"When you start driving again?" Wren was astonished.

"I'm going to have hand controls installed in my car," Trey explained.

"Cool! I didn't even know they could do that."

"Say, Wren." He licked his lips nervously. "Can I kiss you?"

"I think I'd like that."

So he did.


	19. Becker

"Very good, Robin. I could tell you worked hard on choosing your best pieces to include in your compilation." Mrs. Williams smiled as she handed the compilation back to Robin. Robin saw that the teacher had written a big 'A+' in red ink on the front cover.

"Thank you!" she exclaimed.

"Yours was the best in the entire class," Mrs. Williams continued. "I hope you'll consider a career in creative writing. I just know you'd be a huge success."

"So how did you do?" Trendi asked Robin after school. Robin proudly showed her friend the compilation.

"Wow, that's great! I only got a B+ on mine."

"A B+ is still a good grade." Robin didn't want her friend to feel bad.

The following morning, Robin simply couldn't get out of bed. Every time she sat up, a wave of dizziness forced her to lie back down, and her throat was so sore that she could barely swallow. "Mom, I'm really sick!" Her voice was so weak that she could barely hear it. Helen came and quickly felt her forehead.

"My God, you're burning up! Get dressed. I'm taking you to the clinic right away." Robin was so weak and dizzy that Helen had to help her dress and walk out to the car.

The clinic was very crowded, and they had a hard time finding a place to sit. When they finally did, Robin was shocked to discover that the boy who was sitting beside her was someone she knew. "Becker!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

She hadn't known him very well at all. He'd been Danny's best friend and the driver of the car he'd been riding in when he'd been killed. Wren had kept in touch with him until she'd left for California, but Robin hadn't seen him since Danny's funeral. "I have to come here now when I get sick," he told her. "We lost our insurance when my Dad lost his job. We lost our home too, and had to move into a smaller one."

"I'm sorry," Robin replied. "Well, at least you're not in a wheelchair anymore."

"I'm not completely better, either." He glanced down at his brace-clad legs. "I never will be. How's Wren? Are she and Gabriel still together?"

"They broke up before Christmas. She's with a different guy now."

Becker was shocked. "But those two were inseparable!"

Robin didn't say anything. How could she possibly explain to him all that had happened? It struck her how ironic it was that Danny, who'd been killed in the crash, was now healthy and whole, while Becker, who'd survived, was still crippled over three years later. "What about you?" Robin asked. "Are you seeing anyone?"

Becker scowled. "What woman would want to hang around with a crip like me?" Robin thought about Trey and how badly he'd been injured, much more so than Becker had, yet how much Wren seemed to care for him.

"Some girls are willing to look beyond all that," she told Becker.

He snorted. "Well, I sure wish you'd introduce me to one of them." Robin thought of her friend Trendi and wondered whether or not she was seeing anyone. She decided to ask her the next time she saw her. "So are you seeing anyone?" asked Becker.

Robin smiled. "Oh, yes. I'm seeing someone very special."

"Oh yeah? Anyone I know?"

She nodded.

"Who is he?"

"If I told you, you'd never believe me in a million years."

"Try me."

Robin was still debating how to answer him when he was called back to be examined. Feeling tired and weak, she tried to nap but couldn't get comfortable. After a long wait, she was finally called back and examined. "Looks like mononucleosis," the physician on duty told Helen. "We'll just have to let it run its course." He prescribed fever and anti-inflammatory medications and sent her home. By the time she got there, the only thing she felt like doing was going to bed.

* * *

_Robin could hear a baby crying. She knew that it was her son and that his name was Nathaniel. "Nathaniel! Where are you?" she called to him. She realized that the street on which she was walking was made of gold. I must be in heaven. For some reason she wasn't one bit surprised. Danny! _

_Right away she saw him, making love to Wren on a large, fluffy bed with a leopard-print coverlet. Her sister's head was thrown back, her eyes closed in ecstasy, and Danny thrust into her ever harder and faster, and tears filled Robin's eyes as she recalled the pain, the horror, of being pinned helplessly beneath Bruce's body, completely at the mercy of his perverted demands..._

_And suddenly he was there, dressed in sackcloth, his body burned and ravaged, reeking of sulfur. "Our son, Robin," he sneered. "You're neglecting our son! What kind of mother do you think you are?"_

She gasped and opened her eyes to look into Danny's and instantly realized that she was lying in her bed and he was holding something cool and moist to her forehead. "Oh, Danny, you'll never believe what I just saw!"

"It's all right." His voice was ever so gentle and soothing. "You were hallucinating. Your fever went up pretty high, but it's a little lower now." She heard a trace of worry in his voice that she'd never heard before.

"How did you get in here?"

He smiled. "How do you think?"

"Does my Mom know you're here?"

He shook his head. "She fell asleep watching a soap opera. I knew you needed me so I just came on over." His fingers brushed moist hair back from her forehead. She closed her eyes. It felt really nice. Then she remembered and opened them again.

"I met up with Becker at the clinic."

If the news disturbed him at all, he certainly didn't show it. "Sh. Rest now. We'll talk about it when you're feeling better."


	20. Not Exactly The Same

The next several days passed in a blur for Robin. The medication made her sore throat feel better, but it also made her very sleepy. Every time she awakened, Danny was there with a cool rag for her face or a cup of soothing spiced tea or comforting soup. "Certainly my Mom knows you're here by now," she said to him once. He nodded. "And she doesn't mind?"

"Nope. She told me to keep coming around. Said she didn't know what she'd do without me."

"But what about all the other people who need you?"

"Right now, you're the one who needs me most. Plus, you're the one I enjoy being with the most."

"Good to know I'm not just a sickie to you."

He laughed. "Oh, no. You're much more than that."

One day when she was feeling better, he took her for a walk. They walked right past a tree that had been split right down the middle. Robin remembered how that had happened and shuddered. Danny didn't even seem to notice.

Suddenly she realized that they were on what she'd always considered to be the 'bad' part of town. The houses were older, smaller, and less well built, the sidewalks had cracks with weeds growing in them, and the buildings were dirty with graffiti and peeling paint. "This part of town gives me the creeps." Robin shuddered.

"Why? You know I'd never let anything happen to you." Danny put his arm around her protectively.

"Yeah." She laughed. "Sometimes I just forget, I guess."

Danny stopped before a particularly humble home and rang the doorbell. A middle-aged woman whom Robin didn't recognize answered the door. "Is Becker in?" he asked her.

The woman's eyes narrowed. "Do I know you?"

"My name's Danny. It's a long story, but we've met before. I'm a friend of Becker's."

The woman's eyes had a faraway look. "George _did _have a friend named Danny once..." She shook her head and laughed. "Never mind. Come on in. Is he expecting you?"

"I told him I'd try to stop by today. This is my friend Robin."

"How do you do."

Danny knocked on Becker's bedroom door. There was a slight delay, and then the door was opened. "Danny!" Becker looked elated. "It really _is _you!"

"Of course it's me. Who else would it be?"

"Come on in." He moved so that Danny and Robin could enter. "Digs aren't quite as fancy as before." He sounded embarrassed.

"That doesn't matter at all," Danny replied.

Becker stared at the floor, unsure of what to say. "I'm sorry," he finally blurted out. His eyes didn't meet Danny's. "It was all my fault. What can I say? It was stupid and irresponsible. There's no excuse for it."

"I was pretty stupid and irresponsible too," Danny replied. "After all, nobody forced me to get in the car with you."

"Even so, I was the one driving, and you were the one who..." He couldn't finish.

"That doesn't really matter anymore, does it?" asked Danny.

"Thanks for being so nice about it," Becker mumbled.

"Hey, what are friends for?"

* * *

"That was the most fun I've had in a long time!" said Wren as she and Trey left the bowling alley.

"Me too," Trey agreed. "That's the first time since my injury that I've felt completely normal. For a couple of hours, I actually forgot that I lost my legs!"

He drove her back to her apartment in his car with the hand controls, and she asked if he'd like to come inside for a drink. He looked frightened for just a minute. "It'll be all right!" she encouraged.

Still looking a bit doubtful, he followed her into the apartment and sat on the sofa. She went into the kitchen, fetched the drinks, and then took them into the living room, where she handed one of them to Trey. "Thank you," he said.

"You're welcome." She sat beside him on the sofa. "You look so handsome tonight, Trey."

He blushed and stared at the floor. She was thinking of her first time, with Danny, on what now seemed a lifetime ago. Had he acted this shy? She couldn't remember.

"You look very nice as well," he said. She leaned her face toward his, and suddenly they were kissing passionately. Her tongue sought entrance to his mouth, and he granted it. Her desire mounted higher and higher, until suddenly he pulled away in alarm. "I can't." His voice sounded small and scared. "I just...can't."

* * *

"That was really brave of you," Robin said to Danny as they left Becker's house. "I'm not sure if I could have done that, if I were you."

"He's been consumed with guilt ever since it happened," Danny replied. "I could tell that seeing me alive and well and happy gave him peace about it."

"Well, not actually," Robin said softly.

Danny frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Well...you're not exactly the same as you were before, are you?"

"I'm better than I was before. I can't get sick or hurt anymore. That's why I didn't have to worry about catching mononucleosis from you. I'll never get any older, either."

"But I will."

"Yeah, I know." He looked like a child whose balloon had just been deflated.


	21. Trey's Good News

"Did I do something wrong?" Wren was alarmed.

"Oh, no! Not at all!" Trey quickly assured her. "It's not you. It's me. You see...how can I put this...I haven't been intimate with a woman since before I left for Afghanistan, so no woman has ever seen me naked without my legs before, and I just don't know how it would go. I'm...I'm scared, Wren. What if you saw my stumps and got totally put off?"

"You're more than just your legs, Trey. You're still the same person you were before you went to Afghanistan. Who you are inside hasn't changed, and that's what's important."

"Yeah, I know, but still...you've never even seen my stumps when I'm not wearing pants. What if you did and got totally grossed out?"

Wren shook her head. "I don't think that would happen." At the same time, it occurred to her that she had never seen stumps of amputated limbs before. What if they were covered with scar tissue and looked really horrid? Would she really be able to look beyond all that? She'd like to say yes, but she honestly didn't know for sure.

"I think I'd better just leave," Trey said shortly.

"Oh, no, you don't have to..."

But he was already gone.

* * *

Robin stood in front of the mirror in her bedroom, surveying her facial features intently. She knew that she'd someday be older, the pimples would go away and crow's feet would appear, and the roots of her hair would turn white. Yet Danny would still look exactly the same as he did now. What would their relationship be like then? Would they be more like mother and son than boyfriend and girlfriend? She decided she'd simply have to stay looking as young as possible for as long as she could. There were wrinkle creams and hair dyes. It could be done...for a while, anyway.

At lunch time the following Monday, Robin had just picked up her tray when she heard someone call to her and turned to see Trendi sitting with Ashlynn and Blake. Ashlynn was in their creative writing class, and Blake was a good friend of hers. Robin remembered what she'd planned to ask her friend. She walked over to their table and sat down.

"So do any of you have plans for spring break?" asked Ashlynn.

"We'll probably go visit my grandparents," said Blake.

"We don't have any definite plans," said Trendi. "I guess we'll just hang around here." She looked at Robin. "Hey, maybe you and I could do stuff together...oh yeah, you have a boyfriend, don't you?"

"Yeah, but we could still do stuff together. Say, do _you _have a boyfriend?"

Trendi rolled her eyes. "Not even close!"

"Danny has a friend who'd like to meet someone. Only thing is, he wears braces on his legs. Would that be OK with you?"

"I guess so. I don't see why not."

"Great! I'll tell Danny you want to meet Becker, and maybe we can all get together sometime."

* * *

Wren typed 'amputation stumps' into Google images and gazed at the wide variety of photographs that came up. Some were neatly healed with smooth scars, while others were hideous. Since Trey was able to get around really well on artificial legs now, she assumed that his must resemble the former, and that made her feel very relieved.

Days went by and she didn't hear a word from him. She sent him emails that he didn't respond to and left calls that he didn't return. When Friday night came, she found herself sitting alone and watching television when she felt tears sting her eyes. It had now been an entire week since she'd seen or even spoken to Trey, and she missed him.

Just then the telephone rang. Wren's heart thrilled when she heard Trey's voice. "Hey, guess what!" he exclaimed.

"What?"

"I've got a job! I'm gonna be doing computer work for the police department. Veteran's Affairs helped me get it. Say, can I take you out for dinner tomorrow night to celebrate? I know it's late notice, but this is the first chance I've had to call you all week."

"Sure! I'd love to see you again. I've been missing you."

"I've been missing you too, Wren."

"I've tried to call you a bunch if times. Sent you emails, too."

"I've been busy. Look, I'll pick you up at six, OK?"

"OK."

Wren felt really anxious about the date, concerned that it would be awkward. Yet Trey was so thrilled about his new job that that seemed to be foremost in his mind. He took her to one of the nicest restaurants in town. "Order anything you want," he told her. She chose a medium-priced meal.

"Sorry I was out of touch for awhile," he said as they waited for their food to arrive. "I've just been so busy looking for a job lately that I haven't really had time for much else. I expect you've probably been busy with school as well, right?"

"Oh, yes. I just had an exam this morning."

He smiled. "I hoe you did well on it."

"Thanks. I hope so, too."

The conversation flowed naturally for the rest of the date, and then he drove her to her apartment. She hesitated only a moment before inviting him in for drinks again. Once they were inside, an awkward silence prevailed until Trey finally broke it. "Would you like to see?"


	22. Kites

Wren gulped, then nodded. Trey slowly removed his shoes, his pants, his prosthetic socks, and the socks covering his prosthetic legs. When he was finished, he watched Wren's face carefully, gauging her reaction.

To Wren's relief, she saw that his stumps were indeed neatly and cleanly healed. After the initial shock of seeing thighs that didn't end in knees, legs, and then feet, nothing about them seemed unnatural to her at all. On impulse, she knelt beside the sofa and began to kiss them.

She felt his fingers stroking her hair and looked up to see him grinning at her. A moment later, he was pulling her up beside him on the sofa, and immediately he laid her back and began to kiss her passionately.

* * *

Danny stood on Robin's front porch, smiling and holding two kites. "Want to come to the park with me?" he asked her.

"I was going to call Trendi, but that's OK. I'll just call her later," Robin told him.

"Why don't you invite her along?" Danny suggested.

"Great idea! Maybe we could invite Becker to come along as well."

"I was just thinking the same thing."

Trendi was at a dentist appointment, but her brother said he'd tell her Robin had called when she got back home. Danny and Robin headed for the park together, and soon Danny had both kites soaring high in the sky. As Robin stood with Danny's arm around her, watching the kites bobbing in the wind, she thought about heaven and marveled at the fact that Danny had actually lived there for three years. She recalled her hallucination about the crying baby as well. "He must be a few months old by now," she said.

"Yes."

"I wonder if I'll ever know what it's like to hold my own baby in my arms," she mused.

"Of course you will."

"I think it would be so neat if..." Knowing that there was no point in talking about it, she swallowed the lump in her throat as she fingered the 'forever' necklace Danny had given her for Christmas.

"Do you know why the sky is blue?" asked Danny.

Robin shrugged. "That's just the way it is, I guess."

"The molecules in the air absorb all the colors of the spectrum except blue. They reflect blue, so that's what we see."

"What causes rainbows, then?"

"Since waves of light are of different lengths, they react differently with water droplets," Danny told her.

"How do you know all that?"

"When you don't have to worry about the pressures and stresses of life on earth, you have more time to think about other things."

"Must be nice."

"Yeah, but there are nice things about living on earth, too."

* * *

"I don't know what I was afraid of," said Wren. She and Trey were basking in the afterglow of their first lovemaking session. She lay with her head on his shoulder as his fingers trailed lazy circles on her back. "It seems so silly now."

"Perhaps I was a bit hard on you." Trey sounded apologetic. "But I was scared, too."

"That's perfectly understandable," Wren replied. "If something like that happened to me, I'd be scared no man would ever be attracted to me again, too." She looked at him with solemn eyes. "So if I, like, got breast cancer and lost both breasts, would you still think I was desirable?"

"Of course I would! I hope nothing like that ever happens because I like your breasts very much, but if it did, it wouldn't be the end of the world."

"I'm awfully glad you feel that way." Secure in his arms, she yawned. With Trey, it had been so different than it had been with both Danny and Gabriel. With Danny, she'd felt like a curious kid reveling in a newly found discovery; with Gabriel, there had been an element of seeking to recapture what she'd lost when she'd lost Danny. With Trey, for the first time, she'd truly wanted to share the most intimate part of herself with another person and get a glimpse of their soul in return.

"Sleepy?" asked Trey. "You can take a nap, if you want."

"Sounds like a great idea."

* * *

"So how did it go at the dentist?" Robin asked Trendi. The two of them were sitting with Danny and Becker at a table in a pizza restaurant, talking together while waiting for their pizza to arrive.

"Pretty good. I don't have any cavities, thank goodness." Trendi was very pretty with her hair freshly done and her face made up.

"That's cool," said Robin. "So you don't have to go back for six months?"

"Nope. So you guys both graduated high school four years ago, right?" Trendi asked Danny and Becker.

"Uh...yeah." Becker looked down at the table top.

"We're both the same age as Robin's sister Wren," Danny told her.

"So I'm out with an older man, then." Trendi chuckled.

"Yes, you are." Becker shot Danny a grateful look.


	23. Pensacola Beach

"You know, I've been thinking," Robin said to Danny.

"Don't overdo it," he teased. It was in mid-July, and the two of them, along with Trey and Wren, were lying on quilts on the beach beneath a blazing Florida sun. Danny had transported the four of them to Pensacola Beach, and they were enjoying the white sands and the surf.

"Remember that time you took us back to 1978 to watch 'Ice Castles'?"

"Yep."

"Well, why can't we just go back in time to right before your accident, and you could just refuse to get into the car with Becker?"

"It doesn't work that way, Robin." Danny's voice was solemn.

"Why not?"

"We'd have to leave all our loved ones behind and never see them again."

"I don't understand."

"It's hard to explain." Danny pressed his fingertips together into a steeple shape and stared at them. "We could travel to another universe that's just like this one except that my accident didn't happen, and there would be a copy of your Mom and my parents and everybody else, but that's all they would be, because it would be a completely different universe. We would have disappeared from this one. When we went to see 'Ice Castles', that was in another universe too, one in which it was still 1978, but that didn't really matter, because we were only there for a couple of hours. We couldn't have stayed and lived in that universe, because we don't belong there."

"You mean there's more than just one universe?"

"Oh yes! There are an infinite number of universes, because there are an infinite number of ways history could have played out, but humans in their mortal form can never visit them, because they're moving away from us at a velocity faster than the speed of light."

"So when we went back to 1978, we were moving faster than the speed of light?"

"Yep." He grinned.

"But how?"

"An immortal body isn't bound by the space-time continuum of the physical universe."

"But I was still in _my _mortal body..."

"But you were holding my hand just like you always do when I take you somewhere. Remember?"

"Oh, yeah..."

Robin's eyes were closed, so she didn't see Danny stand up and walk to the water's edge, but a moment later, she felt the wetness as he poured the bucket full of water all over her. "I'm gonna get you!" she cried, jumping to her feet and sprinting after him. His long legs easily outran hers, of course.

Trey and Wren laughed as they looked on. "Is this the first time you've ever visited northwest Florida?" asked Wren.

"Actually, no. A buddy of mine from high school was stationed at the navy base here for a few months. He was in flight school, and I came to see him graduate. Have you ever seen the movie 'An Officer and a Gentleman' with Richard Gere?"

Wren frowned. "I don't think so. It's kind of old, isn't it?"

"It came out in 1983, but it's a really good movie. We should watch it together sometime. Anyway, my buddy was in the same flight school Richard Gere's character was sent to at the end of the movie."

"I didn't even know there _was _a navy base here."

Trey laughed. "Actually there are several. Would you like a snow cone? I think I'm gonna get one for myself."

"Yeah, I feel like I'm about to catch on fire!"

Trey loped over to the snow cone stand just as easily as any able-bodied man could have. Wren had known better than to have volunteered to go for him, as she knew how angry it always made him whenever anyone even hinted that he might not be perfectly capable of doing anything he wanted to.

He purchased a pina colada snow cone for Wren and a mango one for himself and then walked back to where she was sitting. "Since we're here anyway, it would be nice if we could take in a Blue Angels air show as well," he said once he was seated again.

Wren looked at her snow cone and saw that it was already melting, dark yellow rivulets snaking down the outside of the white paper container. "What's that?"

"They're navy pilots," Trey explained. "They put on these great air shows with all these fantastic maneuvers."

"I've never seen anything like that before."

"You'd love it!"

"Talk to Danny about it. He can take us anywhere, anytime."

They stayed until the sun began to set, and then Danny took them back home. "Want to try the west coast next time?" he asked Robin.

"Sure!"

The following day, Trey, Wren, and Robin were all as red as lobsters, despite having covered themselves liberally with sunblock. Danny, who hadn't even used sunblock, remained completely unaffected.

"Go away," Robin told him when he came to pick her up. "I hate you."

He howled with laughter. "Here, let me help you." He applied aloe vera gel to his hands and rubbed them all over her body, and she instantly felt much better.

"What would I ever do without you?" she sighed in gratitude.


	24. Paisley

One afternoon, Danny and Robin were strolling together in the mall when Robin saw a girl who looked strangely familiar pushing a stroller that held a baby boy of about six months or so. It took her only a minute or two to remember when she'd last seen the girl. "Paisley!" she called.

Paisley looked confused for just a moment, then smiled. "Robin! What a surprise! This is my son, Kenan."

Robin frowned. "But I thought you were gonna give your baby up for adoption."

"I _did, _but it's an open adoption. That means I've met his parents, and they even let me see him from time to time. They had an appointment to go to this afternoon, so they let me take him for a couple of hours."

"So you're babysitting your own son?"

Paisley laughed. "I hadn't really thought of it that way, but yes, I am."

"This is my boyfriend, Danny."

The other girl gasped. "Oh, you mean...nice to meet you, Danny."

"Nice to meet you too, Paisley." They shook hands.

"And no, he isn't the father of the baby I lost." Robin answered Paisley's unasked question.

"Oh...well..." Paisley blushed but quickly recovered. "You _do _both go to church, right?"

"We attend the Life Way church," Danny told her.

She frowned. "Oh, don't go there. They teach that it's all right to be gay!"

Robin shrugged. "So? We know some gay people who go to Life Way, and they're all perfectly nice people."

"But it's against the Bible! I could show you the scripture verses Linda showed me!"

"But they aren't hurting anybody else!" Robin argued.

"I'm sure Linda means well, but she's wrong," Danny added. "There are many homosexuals in heaven. Trust me. I know."

Paisley's eyes narrowed. "How would _you _know?"

"I just know, that's all. I have nothing but the deepest respect for the Bible, but you just can't take every word of it literally."

"The Bible is the word of God!" Paisley was so upset that she was practically shouting. "Linda says if you don't believe that, you're not going to heaven!"

"Your son is such a cute little boy," said Danny. "He has blue eyes, just like you do."

"His eyes really look more like his dad's. His are a deep, piercing blue. You could lose yourself in them."

"I take it he's no longer in the picture," Danny remarked.

Paisley nodded. "I thought he really loved me, but it turned out he was only after one thing. I believed his lies and let him take my virtue, and now I can't give it to my husband on our wedding night."

"When you meet the right man, that won't matter to him," Danny told her.

Her eyes widened. "Really?"

"Really."

"You're very lucky, Robin," said Paisley.

"I know I am," Robin replied. She glanced at Danny, and he smiled and took her hand.

The three of them walked up and down the mall and chatted for awhile, and then Paisley said that she had to take Kenan back to his adoptive parents. "Won't you please come to Faith Chapel with me on Sunday?" she asked Danny and Robin before she left. "I know you'd enjoy it. It's full of Bible-believing Christians who really care about your soul."

Danny smiled. "Perhaps some day, but not this Sunday.

"If I were you, I wouldn't put it off _too _long," Paisley replied. "The rapture could happen any day, you know."

"I wonder how she feels when she has to leave him behind and go back home alone," Robin said when Paisley was out of earshot. "I'll bet it makes her really sad." She thought of something. "Why didn't you tell her what you really are?"

Danny gave a short, sharp laugh. "You think she would have believed me?"

"I guess not."

Neither of them said anything for a long time, until Robin finally broke the silence. "What's wrong?"

"I've already stayed here longer than I was supposed to," Danny replied. "I'm supposed to leave for another assignment in Chicago. A young woman who's three months pregnant was paralyzed in the same wreck that killed her husband."

"That's terrible!" Robin gasped. "But what about me? You said you'd stay as long as I needed you!"

"I _did," _he replied. "Do you still need me? You're doing great in school, you have good friends, you're reconciled with your mother and sister now..."

"But that doesn't mean I don't need you anymore! If you went away again, I'd miss you like crazy!"

"I'd miss you too, Robin." His eyes couldn't meet hers. "Maybe it won't be so bad. I could just split my time between here and Chicago and try my best to leave my weekends open so that we could go out."

"Is that all I am to you, Danny? Just another assignment?"

"Of course not! You're much more to me than that!"

"How old is this young woman?"

"She's twenty-four."

"And her husband's dead?"

"He was killed less than a week ago."

"Is her paralysis permanent?"

"Yes."

"Is it from the neck down or the waist down?"

"From the neck down."

"And she's gonna have a baby."

"Yes. Why all the questions?"

She shrugged. "Just curious, that's all."

"Hey." He touched her chin with his fingertips. "There's nothing to worry about. Whatever was meant to be, will be, but I promise you, everything will work out for the best."

He could tell by her expression that she was still troubled.


	25. Lucy

"So how was your first day of school?" Danny asked as he and Robin were enjoying their frozen yogurts at Dee-lite. With the exception of a couple of hurried text messages from Chicago, it was the first time they'd spoken in a week.

"I think this year's gonna be harder than last," she replied. "I'm in Advanced Placement English - that's college freshman level English."

"Well, they must think you can handle it, or they wouldn't have let you into the class."

"You wouldn't _believe _the amount of reading I have to do." Robin rolled her eyes. "And not even that is as bad as geometry. You should see my homework assignments!"

"I wonder what senior year would have been like for me," Danny remarked.

"Were you a good student?"

"Not really. I spent too much time sketching in the margins instead of taking notes."

"How's Ashley?"

"Still depressed. She was really torn up over the fact that she was still too badly injured to attend her husband's funeral, and she's discouraged about starting physical therapy. I've been trying my best to convince her that she can do it, but so far I haven't been successful."

"How's she gonna take care of her baby when it's born?"

"Obviously she'll have to have help. I'm trying to see what I can get lined up. Luckily, there's a few more months before we have to worry about that."

"Do you like spending so much time with her?"

"To be honest, I'd rather be with you, but you're busy with school and other things. You don't need me as much as you did before."

"But I _do _need you!"

Danny grinned. "You're doing great, Robin. And like I keep telling you, I'll always be here for you when you need me."

* * *

"I want you to meet someone important," Trey told Wren as he opened the door to his apartment. They'd just stepped inside when a small white dog bounded up to Trey, nearly knocking him down in its enthusiasm. "Hey there, Lucy!" Trey picked the little ball of fur up. "This is my friend Wren. Wren, meet Lucy."

"Aw, she's cute!" Wren took the warm, squirming bundle into her hands. "Aren't you a little sweetheart! When did you get her, Trey?"

"A couple of days ago. I swung by the pound after work just to see what they had. Guy that worked there said her family had to move and couldn't take her with them. When she saw me, she ran over and just stared up at me with those big brown eyes, and I knew I just couldn't let her be put down."

"And it's OK with your apartment's manager?"

"Sure, since I paid the pet deposit."

"Is she housebroken?"

"Oh, yeah. She just had a couple of accidents the first day or two, but she's been fine since then."

Wren could tell that Lucy wanted to get back down, so she set her on the floor and watched her scamper toward a hot pink bone-shaped pillow in the corner. "That's her bed," Trey explained. He led Wren into the kitchen, where she saw a couple of ceramic bowls with pink bones painted all over them on the floor. "And these are her food and drink bowls. Yes, I'm spoiling her, but it's so much fun!"

"I've never had a dog," said Wren.

Trey gasped. "You're kidding!"

Wren shook her head. "After my Dad died, things were always really tight. Sometimes it was all Mom could do just to take care of Robin and me."

"Oh...well, I don't think Lucy will mind if I share her with you, will you, Lucy?" He picked the dog up, and she licked his cheek. "Of course she won't."

* * *

"I don't believe it!" Robin moaned as she stared in dismay at the large red letter 'F' at the top of her geometry exam. "I studied _so _hard!" Tears filled her eyes as she gathered all her papers together and left for her next class. She could only guess how upset her mother would be when she found out.

Danny wasn't there to meet her after school. She'd known he wouldn't be. Arriving home at last, she entered the house and was about to slink past her mother watching television to her room when she remembered. Plopping her backpack down onto the table, she unzipped it and took out the exam with the strip of paper stapled to it. "You have to sign this," she told her mother.

Helen glared at the big red 'F' on the paper, then got her pen out and signed it. "You're grounded for a week," she told her daughter. "That means no cell phone and no internet, and you stay home this weekend."

Aware that it would do no good to argue with her mother, Robin went to her room and threw herself across the bed. Her eyes filled with tears.

_Oh, Danny, where are you?_


	26. To Me, You're Worth It

"I'm right here." She felt his hand on her back as she heard his soothing voice. "You know I'll always be here when you need me, Robin."

She raised her head, and he saw the tears in her eyes. "She grounded me for a week because I failed a geometry test," she told him. "I studied as hard as I could, but I failed it anyway. Maybe I should just use cheat sheets next time."

Danny shook his head. "Cheat sheets won't help you learn geometry."

Robin snorted. "Maybe they'd at least keep me from getting grounded."

"Cheating never solves anything," Danny replied. "What you need is to learn how to study more efficiently, and some tutoring wouldn't hurt, either."

"But I don't know any tutors!"

"I know of one. Her name's Hannah, and she's in your class. She's tall, with blonde hair and glasses. I'll see what I can do."

"That still doesn't solve the problem of this weekend. I'm gonna miss hanging out with you."

Danny covered her hand with his own. "I'll miss hanging out with you too, but it'll pass quickly, and we can make up for it next weekend by doing something extra special." He chuckled. "I'd better leave now before your Mom finds me here." He slipped something into her hand and then vanished.

After he'd gone, Robin looked down at the object in her hand and saw that it was a tiny bottle of perfume in her favorite scent, Gardenia.

* * *

"So, how'd you meet him?" asked Trey as he and Wren tossed a Frisbee back and forth in the park. "If you don't mind talking about it, I mean."

"I don't mind," Wren replied. "We were both juniors in high school. One day I was lying in the bleachers and he climbed up and started talking to me. We were pretty much together all the time after that."

"We didn't make love for the first time until April of the next year, though. It was a rainy Saturday, and we were alone in my house, and I asked him if he wanted to. He said he didn't have any protection, and I told him it was fine because Mom had bought me some and showed me how to use them."

Trey gasped. "You mean you actually had her permission?"

"It wasn't so much that as she figured I was gonna do it anyway and didn't want me to get pregnant."

Trey laughed. "I can't even _imagine _my Mom buying them for Shelby. My Dad would have had an absolute fit."

"Over your Mom buying condoms for Shelby, if she had?"

"That's right!"

"Who bought you _your _first box of condoms?"

Trey gave a sheepish laugh. "My Dad."

"And you were how old?"

"Sixteen."

"Your family's very traditional, isn't it?"

"They are, and yours isn't, I take it."

"Not hardly. I was raised by a single Mom. Our Dad died when we were small."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"I don't remember it very well at all. I remember when Danny died as if it was yesterday. I called him, and his mother answered the phone crying. She said there'd been an accident."

"That must have been so hard for you." His voice was soft.

"I was devastated. I felt so lost, until Gabriel came along."

"Gabriel?"

"He transferred to my school my senior year. I wasn't that impressed with him at first, but once I got to know him, I fell for him pretty quickly."

"And then how did that end, if you don't mind my asking?"

Wren fell silent, and a moment later, she felt Trey's arm around her. "You don't have to tell me if it hurts too much." Relief surged through her.

They'd almost made it back to the car when Wren tripped over a tree root and went flying. Trey wasn't fast enough to catch her before she landed on the ground, automatically using an arm to break her fall.

"Are you all right?" Trey grabbed her other arm and helped her up.

"I don't think so." He saw that tears were welling up in her eyes. "My arm hurts, and I can't move it. I think it might be broken."

"I'm taking you to the hospital right away!" Trey exclaimed.

Wren had to wait several hours before her name was called. "You don't have to stay with me, you know," she told Trey. "I could just call you to pick me up when I'm done."

"That's all right. I don't mind waiting. If I left, I'd only drive myself crazy worrying about you."

"But it's just a broken arm. Not that big of a deal."

"To me it _is _a big deal, because it's _your _broken arm." Wren felt a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach. Would Gabriel have waited with her in the waiting room for just a broken arm? She wouldn't have counted on it. Would Danny have? _Danny. _She had to swallow a lump in her throat.

"I'll see if I can get you something for pain." Trey had seen her expression and misunderstood.

"That's OK. I'll be all right."

At last she was taken back to have her arm X-rayed. About half an hour later, she returned to the waiting room with a big, bulky white cast on her arm.

"Broken, huh?" asked Trey.

She grimaced and nodded.

"I'm sorry." He reached for her and pulled her into an embrace, and she rested her head on his shoulder.

"I just want to go home."

"Sure." He drove her to her apartment, but instead of dropping her off and then leaving, he entered it with her.

"You must be hungry," he said when they were inside. "Can I fix you something? Soup, perhaps?"

"That would be nice, but what about you? Aren't you hungry, too?"

He grinned. "Nah, I'm all right. I'll just make myself a sandwich when I get home."

He cooked the soup, then stayed with her while she ate it. "It's delicious," she told him. "Don't you want some?"

"Nah, I'm fine."

When she'd finished eating, he helped her with her bath and into her pajamas. "Would you like me to stay the night?" he asked.

"Only if you especially want to. I'll be fine on my own."

"In that case, I'll come back first thing in the morning to see if you need anything." He kissed her good-bye, and as he was walking to the door, she noticed that he was limping and asked him about it.

"My stumps are really sore," he told her. "They get that way from rubbing against my artificial legs sometimes, but I'll be all right. I have a special salve to put on them when I get home."

"How long have they been bothering you?"

"Actually since just before we left the park, but that's OK."

"So you've stayed with me all this time when you were in pain yourself?" Wren felt a stab of guilt.

"Hey." He walked back to her and cupped her face in his hands. "To me, you're worth it."

Too moved to speak, she could only cling to him.


	27. The Fondue Restaurant

Trey rubbed Wren's back as she clung to him, and after a few minutes, he pulled away from her. "Good-bye, Wren, and remember - if you need me for anything at all, I'm only a phone call away."

"Good-bye, Trey, and - thanks for everything."

"No problem at all." He kissed her lips and then was gone. She went to bed right afterwards but had a very difficult time sleeping, as the large, bulky cast was very much in her way. Toward dawn, she finally drifted off to sleep, only to be awakened around nine the following morning.

Cursing under her breath, she made her way to the door and looked through the peephole to see a smiling Trey holding two large white bags with the name of a nearby deli written on them.

Hating herself for having felt irritated before, she swung the door open with a radiant smile. "Wow! Breakfast delivered right to my door! What more could I ask for?"

Trey laughed. "Did you sleep well?"

Wren shook her head. "Not at all. No matter how many times I turned over, this thing was always in my way."

"You'll get used to it soon, I'm sure." He brought the bags inside and sat them on the table. The aromas emitting from them made her mouth water as she walked toward the kitchen.

"Where ya goin'?" asked Trey.

"To get the plates and silverware -"

"Oh, no, you don't. I'll do that. You sit down and wait to be served."

From the first bag, he retrieved cheese grits, bacon, toast, cinnamon rolls, and a Styrofoam cup of coffee. "Dig in!" he invited her.

"It's delicious," she told him as they were eating. "Robin may have her angel, but I've got mine, too."

"Aw." He blushed deep red but smiled.

* * *

The following Monday morning, a tall blonde with glasses came up to Robin after class. "Hi, I'm Hannah," she said. "I heard you could use some tutoring in geometry."

"Big time!" Robin exclaimed. "I can't afford to pay much, though. I don't have a regular job, so I'd have to ask my Mom for the money."

"Oh, don't worry about it!" Hannah smiled and waved her hand. "I'm not doing it for the money. I just want to help."

"Wow, thanks!" Robin exclaimed. "When can we start?"

"Right away, if you want. I'll come over to your place around three. How's that sound?"

"Great! I'll give you directions - "

"That's OK. I know how to get there. See you then!"

Robin just smiled.

Hannah showed up at the agreed-upon time, and after an hour of intense tutoring, Robin thought that perhaps she understood geometry just a smidgen better.

It seemed as if that week would last forever, but Friday finally arrived, and after the final bell rang, she saw that Danny was waiting for her outside the school. "Hey!" she cried as she rushed to embrace him.

"Hey, yourself!" he laughed as he returned the embrace. "So, how's the tutoring going?"

"Fine so far. I think I understand geometry just a little bit better now."

"Glad to hear it. So, what do you want to do this weekend?"

"I was thinking about maybe going to California. I haven't seen Wren in a couple of months."

"Great idea! I'm sure she'd love to see you again. Let's leave tomorrow morning, OK? There's a lovely restaurant I want to take you to tonight."

"Where?"

"It's a surprise!"

Several hours later, they were standing at the entrance of a fondue restaurant. "I've never eaten here before," Robin told Danny.

He smiled. "You're in for a treat!"

The restaurant's interior was dimly lit, the floor was made of hardwood, and the tables were perfect squares that were each surrounded by four black plastic chairs. Danny and Robin were seated, and when the waiter appeared, Danny told him they'd have the 'four-course experience.'

First was the salad, and next was a big pot of melted cheese with many different breads and vegetables to dip in it. "Wow!" Robin's eyes grew round.

Danny laughed. "Save some room for the main course!"

The main course turned out to be boiled lobster with melted butter, which was followed by a dessert of melted chocolate served with strawberries, bananas, pineapple, pound cake bites, and brownies. By the time they'd finished eating, Robin was stuffed!

"How'd you know about that place?" she asked Danny afterwards.

He winked at her. "What do you think?"

Later, the cool autumn breeze ruffled their hair as they approached Robin's doorstep. "Thanks for a wonderful time," she told Danny. "I don't think I've ever eaten so much in my life, and it was all so good!"

"It was," he agreed. He lifted her chin with his fingers and gazed into her eyes. "Thanks for going out with me tonight, Robin. I had a wonderful time."

She closed her eyes as he placed a soft kiss on her lips, and for one brief moment, the world stopped turning.


	28. Truth Or Dare

Trey opened the door right after Danny rang the doorbell, Lucy at his heels. "Hey, guys! Come on in!" he exclaimed.

"Aren't you adorable!" said Robin as she stooped to pet Lucy. "What's your name?"

"Lucy," Trey told her.

Wren was sitting in the recliner, and Robin saw the cast on her arm. "Oh, my God! What happened to you?"

Wren grimaced. "Tripped over a tree branch in the park. Spent four long hours in the waiting room."

"I'm sorry!" said Robin.

Danny placed a hand on Wren's cast. "The bone's knitting back together nicely. In six weeks it'll be good as new."

Wren sighed. "That seems like forever to me. Isn't there any way it could be sped up?"

Danny laughed and shook his head. "Nope. Sorry. But I'm glad we came. It looks like you could use some cheering up."

"Trey's been doing an excellent job of that." Wren clasped his hand and gave a proud smile. "He's _my _angel."

"There are indeed angels on earth," Danny agreed, turning to Robin. "Hannah isn't charging you a dime for the geometry tutoring, is she, Robin?"

Robin shook her head. "I offered to pay her, but she refused."

Danny nodded. "I knew she would."

"Would you folks like something to drink?" offered Trey.

"We're fine," Danny replied.

"So you're being tutored in geometry?" Wren asked her sister.

Robin nodded. "I failed a test, and Mom put me on restriction. Then Danny told me about Hannah, and she offered to help me."

"Geometry wasn't my best subject, either," said Wren.

"So what did you folks have planned for this afternoon?" asked Danny.

"We were gonna just hang out and watch movies," Trey told him. "Wren can't do much with that thing on her arm."

"Since you guys are here, maybe we could do something else," Wren suggested.

"That's all right," said Danny. "Movies are fine with us."

"Since there are four of us, maybe we could play 'Truth or Dare'," Trey suggested. "It's a lot more fun with four people than just two."

"You can go first, since it was your idea," said Wren.

"OK. Truth or dare, Danny?"

Danny thought for a minute. "Truth."

"Who was the first person you saw when you entered heaven?" asked Trey.

"My grandmother who died when I was five," Danny replied. "Truth or dare, Robin?"

She didn't have to think for very long. Danny already knew everything about her, and she knew he'd never ask her to do anything she really didn't want to. "Dare."

"Drink a small amount of an unknown concoction." He, Trey, and Wren went to the kitchen and returned ten minutes later with a small cup. Robin raised it to her lips. Apple juice, syrup, and cream. Not bad.

"Your turn, Robin," Danny reminded her.

"Truth or dare, Danny."

Danny grinned. "Dare."

Robin was stumped. She'd been sure he'd choose 'truth' again.

"Um - eat something I give you," she finally stammered. She went into the kitchen and, after much searching, finally located a box of vanilla wafers. She put a dollop of peanut butter on one and took it to Danny.

The game proceeded without incident until Trey asked Robin what the scariest thing that had ever happened to her had been, and all she could see was Bruce's leering face as he'd dragged her toward the closet. "No, no! Please, no!" She jumped up and ran down the hall as Trey watched her with a puzzled expression. Danny was right behind her, catching up to her and then holding her, soothing her.

"It's all right, Robin. It's all over now, and you're safe."

"Yeah." She gave a shuddering sigh and was herself once again. "Silly me."

"Not at all." Danny's arm was around her, still holding her tight, as he led her back to the living room. "Something very traumatic happened to her not very long ago, and it still upsets her to be reminded of it."

"I'm so sorry!" Trey gasped. "I had no idea!"

"It's all right," Robin told him.

"I know what would make you feel better," said Danny. "How does a ride in a cable car sound?"

"Great!" Robin enthused.

Instantly, the group found themselves sitting in a cable car riding up a steep hill. Danny held Robin's hand a she gazed around at all the sights, and soon she'd forgotten all about the game.

When it got to be nearly dark, Danny and Robin said good-bye to Trey and Wren and returned to their own town. "Well, did you have a nice time?" Danny asked as he said good-bye to Robin at the door or her house.

"I had a wonderful time." She remembered what had happened during the game and stared at the rug mat. "Mostly."

Danny gave her a quick hug.

"Is it always gonna be like that?" she asked him. "Where anytime, something might happen out of the blue to remind me and it'll be just like it's happening all over again?"

"What you experienced is called a flashback," he told her. "It's very common in people who've experienced traumatic events like you have. Usually they diminish over time, but if it's been awhile and they're still a problem for you, there are medications that can help."

"You mean I'm gonna have to become a druggie?"

"I think you're gonna be just fine, Robin. This is the first time anything like this has happened, isn't it?"

"Well, yeah..."

"And I think likely it's the last time it'll happen. You're a strong girl, Robin, and you'll pull through just fine. I know you will."

She sighed. "I sure wish I could be as certain as you."

He kissed her lips. "Just believe in yourself, like I believe in you." He gave her hand and affectionate squeeze, and then he was gone.


	29. A Good Day Turned Bad

"Bet you'll be glad to get this thing off, eh?" the physician's assistant asked Wren as he prepared to cut the cast off her arm.

"More than you'll ever know!" she exclaimed.

The young man quickly snipped through the cotton and bindings, which then fell away from Wren's arm. She lifted it, using the hand of her other arm to dust it off, then tried to straighten it and winced in pain.

"It'll be weak for awhile," the physician told her.

"Well, at least now I can get back to my normal life." She moved the arm back and forth several times in an attempt to restore its flexibility.

"I don't suppose you'll want to return to the park for awhile," Trey chuckled.

"You suppose right," Wren replied.

They left the doctor's office and returned to Trey's car. "Do you need to go anywhere else?" Trey asked as he pulled out of the parking lot.

"No, thanks," Wren replied. "I just want to go home and rest."

A few minutes later, they were back at her apartment. "Thanks for the ride," she said.

Trey grinned. "Sure. Any time."

"Would you like to come in for a little while?" she asked as they were getting out of the car.

"Nah, I'd better head on back to work. They're expecting me." He walked her to the door, and they kissed. "Bye for now."

"Bye." Wren entered her apartment, then checked the time. She decided to take a brief nap and then call Iceas, who should be out of class in about twenty minutes. She fell asleep almost right away, but was soon awakened by the ringing telephone. She rubbed her eyes, then grabbed the receiver.

"Hey, girl!" Iceas sounded as bubbly as ever. "How ya doin'?"

"Hey." Wren yawned. "I thought you were still in class."

"It was cancelled today. I have to go shopping for a birthday present for my Mom, and I was wondering if you'd like to come along."

"Sounds like fun! Guess what? I finally got that cast off my arm!"

"Great! I'll pick you up in about twenty minutes, OK?"

"Sounds good!"

Wren freshened her make-up while waiting for her friend to arrive. Iceas pulled up in her bright red Hyundai about half an hour later, and when Wren opened the door, she squealed with delight. "No more cast! How cool is that?"

"It's still a bit stiff." Wren demonstrated.

"It'll be all right." The girls got into Iceas' car, and Lady Gaga blasted from the speakers as they drove to the mall.

"Where to first?" asked Wren as they walked toward the entrance.

"The linen department," Iceas replied. "I was thinking she could use a new sheet set or towels."

As it turned out, a fantastic sale was going on, and Iceas was able to find a sheet set and two nice towels for less than thirty dollars.

"Those are gorgeous!" Wren exclaimed. "She's gonna love them!"

"Looks like you got some good deals," the cashier remarked as she was bagging Iceas' purchases.

"They're for my Mom's birthday," Iceas replied.

She and Wren walked the length of the mall, visiting the clothing stores, the jewelry stores, and many others. "I've never seen that here before," Wren commented as they reached the bakery store. "It must have just opened."

"Well, let's check it out," Iceas suggested.

They walked up and down the aisles, looking at cakes, pies, cupcakes, muffins, and donuts, until they reached the cookies. "Raspberry cheesecake! Those are Trey's absolute faves!" Wren exclaimed. She bought a dozen of the cookies, and they left the mall.

After a dinner of Asian vegetables with shrimp, Wren took the raspberry cheesecake cookies to Trey's apartment. When he opened the door, she saw that his eyes were red-rimmed.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"It's Lucy. When I got home from work, I found her lying on the floor, barely conscious. She hasn't touched her food or water, and I've found several places where she's passed blood. Do you know how late the emergency vet's open?"

"I'm pretty sure they're open all night," Wren told him.

The cookies forgotten, they sped to the emergency animal hospital. Wren held Lucy in her lap, and the little dog looked up at her with wide, frightened eyes filled with pain. "You're gonna be OK." Wren spoke soothingly as she stroked Lucy's fur. "We're taking you to a doctor who'll make you feel better."

The bright lights inside the animal hospital were a sharp contrast to the dark of the night. A plump, middle-aged technician with curly brown hair took one look at Lucy and took her from Wren's arms, telling Wren and Trey to wait in the waiting room. About twenty minutes later, a veterinarian emerged with a grave look on his face.

"I'm sorry, but Lucy has parvo virus," he told them. "Treatment will involve several days of extensive hospitalization, and even then, there's no guarantee she'll survive. The only other option would be to go ahead and put her down."

"No." Trey shook his head. "I have to give her a chance, however slight it may be."

"I'll go ahead and admit her tonight, then," said the veterinarian. "We'll start administering fluids intravenously, and hopefully, we'll see improvement in several days."

After he'd left, Trey and Wren held one another and cried together.


	30. The Football Game

Robin held her breath as the teacher passed the graded geometry tests back. Relief flooded over her when she saw the 'B-' printed in red at the top of her own paper. She looked over at Hannah and gave her a grateful smile, and Hannah grinned back.

She couldn't wait to tell Danny.

He was waiting for her after school, as she'd known he would be. He broke into a smile as she ran to him and embraced him. "Guess what! I got a B- on my geometry test!" she exclaimed.

"Congratulations!" he said. "I knew you could do it!"

"Thanks to you and Hannah."

"Thanks to Hannah, you mean. I only impressed upon her that she should help you. Want to go to Dee-lite to celebrate?"

"It's a few more hours until dinner time, so I suppose Mom wouldn't mind."

Seconds later, they were sitting at a booth in Dee-lite, enjoying their treats. Robin was having her favorite, strawberry cheesecake, while Danny was having rocky road. "So, have you talked to Adam and Molly lately?" asked Robin.

"Yes, and they're both fine," Danny replied. "Adam was just promoted up to private first class, so he has reason to celebrate as well. Molly's busy with school and chorus. I see them whenever I can, but they have their own lives now, so we're not as close as we were when we were younger. Kind of like the situation between you and Wren."

Robin thought of something. "Would you like to go to the football game with us this coming Friday night? Trendi said Blake and Ashlynn are going, and she's gonna try to get Becker to go, too."

Danny looked thoughtful. "As much as I'd love to, what if someone there were to recognize me? I wouldn't want to steal the spotlight from the ball players after all their hard work."

"You could go in incognito, like dye your hair and wear a fake mustache or something. Nobody would recognize you then."

"That sounds like a good idea. Maybe I'll just do that."

* * *

"Here she is, good as new!" The veterinarian handed the wriggling, squirming dog to Trey, and she covered his face with kisses right away.

"Hey!" Trey laughed as he struggled to hold onto her, and Wren looked on with shining eyes. "Looks like you're rarin' to go!"

"I'm sure she's glad to be out of that little cage," Wren agreed as Trey snapped Lucy's leash to her collar and led her out of the animal hospital. Back at Trey's apartment, he and Wren laughed as Lucy ran from room to room, sniffing all her favorite spots to make sure they all still smelled the same.

"Can you stay for awhile?" Trey asked Wren.

"Sure. I don't have to get up early tomorrow."

"Great! Want to go out and get something for dinner? I need to pick up a few things anyway."

"Cool!"

It was a pleasant evening, so they walked to the corner grocery and bought ground meat, tomatoes, kidney beans, various spices, tortilla chips, cheese, and sour cream, then returned to Trey's apartment. Trey cooked the ground meat while Wren grated the cheese, and then he added the beans and spices, turned the heat down, and covered the pot.

"Time to let it simmer." He winked at her, and she grinned. Then he came to her and began to kiss her passionately. She leaned into his embrace, running her fingers through his hair, and for a little while, dinner was forgotten.

* * *

Danny looked so different that Robin almost didn't recognize him when he appeared on her doorstep Friday evening. "Is that really you?" she asked after staring at him for a few minutes.

_"C'est vrai!" _He grinned as he took her arm in his own. "Shall we be on our way, mademoiselle?"

"You look older with a mustache," Robin told him. She hesitated, then took a deep breath and blurted it out. "Sexier, too!"

He chuckled. "What can I say?"

Moments later, they were at the game, where they soon met up with Blake, Ashlynn, Trendi, and Becker, who looked confused. "Where's Danny?"

"It's me!" Danny grinned. "I changed my looks a bit because I didn't want to draw undue attention to myself."

"Well, it certainly worked!"

The game went well. Robin's school won, and the group was leaving the stadium when they encountered Jess and Darcia, who'd been Wren's best friends in high school. Darcia said hello to Robin and asked about Wren.

"She's doing well," Robin told her. "She's still in college in California, and she has a boyfriend named Trey. He's the best."

"What about Gabriel?"

"They broke up about a year ago."

Jess couldn't stop staring at Danny. "Do I know you?" she finally asked him.

He frowned. "I don't think so."

"It just occurred to me that you remind me an awful lot of - never mind."

Their friends went their separate ways, and Robin was left alone with Danny again. As she gazed into his eyes, she began to feel desire growing inside her and wondered whether he felt the same. Taking a deep breath, she bit her lip and took the plunge.

"You know what? I think we should do something to celebrate the winning game, just the two of us."

"What a great idea!"

Instantly, she found herself slow dancing with Danny in the grandest ballroom she'd ever seen. Several other couples were dancing near them, and Robin's favorite slow song, 'This Moment In Time' by Forever Yours, was playing. It wasn't exactly what's she'd had in mind, but she was touched. She rested her head on Danny's shoulder and savored the intimacy of the moment.


	31. Roller Coaster

"What do you want to do first?" Danny asked Robin as they entered the fair grounds. Although early in the afternoon, it was already quite crowded, and the noise of screaming riders and barkers shouting over the din filled their ears as the aromas of deep fried treats assaulted their nostrils.

"I think I'll start mild." Robin laughed. "Let's go on the merry-go-round first."

"Your wish is my command." He put his arm around her and led her to the merry-go-round. It had only a short line, so they were able to board it right away. They chose adjacent horses and enjoyed the gentle ride, and after that, they rode the Himalaya and then the Sizzler.

"That was so much fun," Robin said as they got off the last ride. "I think I'm ready for the roller coaster now."

"Why don't we take a break and check out some exhibits first," Danny suggested.

"All right." They looked at the aircraft, art, plant, antique, and craft exhibits.

"Want to see the livestock?" asked Danny.

"Phew! I don't think so." Robin held her nose, and he burst out laughing. "Hey, we haven't gone on the Parachute Ride yet!"

"So we haven't." They rode that, and then the swings, and then Robin said she was hungry, so they ate Polish sausages with fried green peppers and onions on buns and french fries while sitting on benches beneath a large tent. By now, it was dusk, and they went to a concert, then stood in line for about half an hour to ride the Ferris wheel.

Robin felt a thrill go through her as the car they were in began to ascend. She grasped Danny's hand, and he squeezed hers tight. "I've never ridden a Ferris wheel with a boy before!" she told him.

"Well, there's a first time for everything, isn't there?"

She wondered whether he'd kiss her when they reached the top, and her heart began to beat faster in anticipation. When at last they got there, the wheel stopped, and the car they were in swayed lightly back and forth in the breeze.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" asked Danny as they gazed at the scene below them.

"I'll bet it reminds you a lot of heaven, doesn't it?" asked Robin.

"Mm hm." He hugged her and kissed her cheek. All too soon, the ride ended.

"We never did ride the roller coaster," Robin remarked as they were getting out of the car. "I'd like to do that before we leave."

Danny sighed. "All right."

They joined a line that seemed to go on forever. Robin knew it would be a long wait, but to her, it would be worth it. "I just love roller coasters!" she exclaimed. She looked at Danny and saw that he seemed to be in deep concentration.

At last it was their turn to board, and Robin was about to run forward when she felt someone pull her arm back and was shocked to find it was Danny. "Just wait," he told her in a low voice.

The car soon filled up and began to move. "What was _that _all about?" Robin asked crossly.

Danny's only response was to lead her a few steps back. They both watched as the car slowly made its way to the top, then picked up speed and came crashing down, running off the tracks and into the crowd as it did so.

Instantly, the air was filled with terrified screams. Danny gave Robin's hand a gentle squeeze. "I have to take you home now," he told her. "I'm needed here."

She nodded, wanting nothing else but that. The next moment, she was opening the door of her house to find Helen asleep in the recliner with the television still on. Helen startled awake when the door opened. "Robin? You're home already?"

"There was a terrible accident, Mom. The roller coaster went off the track."

"Oh, no! Was anyone killed?"

"I don't know. Danny stayed to help. That's why I had to come home now." She was shaking so much she could hardly change into her pajamas, and once she was in bed, she pulled the covers up to her chin and lay there wide-eyed, unable to sleep, until she felt the warmth of a hand touching her own.

"Danny!" she whispered. "I thought you were at the hospital!"

"I just came from there," he told her. "Fortunately, no one was killed, but six people were injured, two of them seriously."

"Are they gonna be OK?"

"Yes. They're both in surgery right now."

"Do they need you to go back, then?"

"No. I was able to get a friend to relieve me." She felt, rather than saw, his smile.

"Can you stay with me for a little while, then? I still feel too keyed up to sleep."

"I can stay for as long as you need me to."

She moved over, and he slipped beneath the covers beside her. She felt his arms encircling her, and she rested her head on his shoulder and was soon asleep. When she awakened the next morning, he was gone, but she still felt just as peaceful and content.

* * *

"What are we gonna do about Thanksgiving?" Wren asked Trey. They sat on a pier with their legs dangling over the side, tossing bread crumbs to the ducks. "I don't want to spend it apart from you."

Trey squeezed her tight. "And I don't want to spend it apart from you, either."

"I suppose the logical thing would be to spend it with your family, since they're a lot closer than mine," Wren reasoned. "On the other hand, I know Mom and Aunt Mari are really looking forward to seeing me again."

"How about we spend Thanksgiving with my family and Christmas with yours," Trey suggested. "You've never met my father, and I've never met your mother and your Aunt Mari, so it'll be an opportunity for everybody to get acquainted."

"What a great idea!" They were out of bread crumbs, so Wren helped Trey to stand, and they walked back to his car.


	32. Meeting Trey's Father

"You remember Wren, Mom," Trey said to his mother.

"Of course I do!" Come on in, sweetheart." Debra Whittaker stepped aside so her guests could enter. "This is my husband, Hugh."

"How do you do." Hugh shook Wren's hand.

"Dinner's almost ready," Debra told Trey and Wren.

Just then, Shelby emerged from the kitchen carrying a steaming plate. "Hi, Wren!" she said with a smile.

"Hi," Wren replied.

The family gathered around the table and sat down. Hugh asked his son to say the blessing, and Trey said a short prayer.

"So tell us about yourself, Wren," Hugh said as they were eating.

"I'm taking psychology at the community college," Wren said. "My Dad died when I was little, so it's just me, my Mom, and my little sister Robin. She graduates high school this year."

"Is that so." Hugh speared a slice of turkey with his fork. "Did Trey ever tell you he played football all through high school?"

"No, he didn't." Wren looked at Trey, who was pretending to concentrate on his food.

"You should see all the trophies and awards he won. His senior year, he was voted the most athletic boy of the graduating class. I was so proud of him. Not that I'm not proud of him now," Hugh quickly added. "I'm sure he's shown you his Purple Heart medal."

"Yes, he has."

"He and Ashley were together all the way through high school. She was head cheerleader, and I was sure they'd be married someday, but when he came back from Afghanistan, she wouldn't even come to see him," Debra put in.

"He could have gone to college on a football scholarship, but he wanted to join the army instead," said Hugh. "Said he wanted to see the world. We all knew he might get sent to Afghanistan, but we tried not to think about that. None of us expected the very worst to come out of it, of course."

"The very worst _didn't _come," Shelby pointed out. "Trey's still alive."

"No point in dwelling on the past," added Debra. "What's done is done, and there's no going back. All we can do now is look to the future."

"How's your job coming along, Trey?" asked Shelby.

"Great!" her brother told her. "I got my first promotion after being there only six months, and I might get another one soon."

"That's great!" said Debra. "Congratulations!"

"Thanks!"

"Nothing wrong with a desk job," Hugh mumbled, but his face betrayed that he didn't believe his own words.

After dinner, Wren went into the kitchen to help Debra and Shelby with the dishes.

"So, what's the community college like?" asked Shelby. "I've been thinking of maybe starting there in January."

"It's great!" Wren told her. "It's not anything like high school, where you're treated like a prisoner and have to get passes to go everywhere, or get sent to the principal's office for being tardy to class. You can come and go as you like, without someone checking up on you twenty-four seven."

"Are the courses really difficult?" asked Shelby.

"They're harder than high school," Wren admitted. "The classes are faster paced, and you have to do a lot more studying. What are you thinking of taking?"

"I'm thinking maybe cosmetology," Shelby replied. "At least it would be a change from what I'm doing now."

"What's that?"

"Supermarket cashier. I've been doing that ever since I graduated high school three years ago, and I'm getting sick of it!"

"You graduated in 2012?"

"Yes."

"So did I!" The girls laughed and embraced one another.

"So why don't you get your own place?" asked Wren.

"I only work part time. That's another reason I'm thinking of going back to school."

Wren emerged from the kitchen to find Hugh and Trey sitting on the sofa. "You never told me Shelby graduated high school the same year I did," Wren said to Trey.

He chuckled. "You never asked."

Wren sat down beside him. She noticed that he was watching a football game and wondered how he was able to do that without feeling major depression. "Would you like to see them?" he asked after awhile.

"What?"

"The football trophies I got in high school."

"Sure!"

He led her to the case in the hallway, and she looked in at them: miniature footballs encased in glass, footballs made of gold, golden cups with players in uniform poised on their rims. "Doesn't it make you feel awfully sad to look at these?" she asked him.

"No. Why should it?"

"Well, you know - just being reminded of what you used to do that you can't do anymore."

"It was never my ambition to become a professional football player," he replied. "It was fun when I was in high school, but I wanted to do something with my life that really mattered."

Wren had to swallow a lump in her throat.

"Do I ever think about what might have been? Of course I do," Trey admitted. "But I know if I dwell on it, it'll drive me crazy. Instead, I concentrate on what I have now. It's the only way to survive."

"You sure seem be be taking it better than your Dad."

"I know." He pulled her close, then kissed the top of her head as her arms went around him. "I don't think he'll ever be able to fully accept that his only son is a double amputee."

She yawned.

"Want to take a nap?" he suggested.

"Sounds like a great idea to me."

He took her hand and led her to his old bedroom, where she lay down on his bed and he lay curled around her.


	33. Christmas Surprise

"Hi, Mom! This is Trey," Wren said after Helen had opened the door.

"Nice to meet you," Helen replied. "Come on in out of the cold."

Their arms laden with presents, Trey and Wren entered the house, where Aunt Mari and Robin sat together on the sofa. Wren introduced Trey to Aunt Mari, and they said hello and shook hands.

"Wren told me about you last year," Aunt Mari said to Trey. "It's nice to meet you. So are you all finished with rehabilitation now?"

"I finished that a long time ago," he replied. "I do data entry for the police department now."

"Glad to hear it," said Aunt Mari. "And how are your studies coming along, Wren?"

"Just fine. I did well on all my finals."

"That's great! What about you, Robin?"

"I got one 'C', in geometry. I got A's and B's in everything else."

"That's all right. You passed. That's all that matters."

_"That _wouldn't even have happened if it weren't for my friend Hannah. She's been tutoring me for most of the term and hasn't even charged me anything."

"That's wonderful!" said Aunt Mari. "Now maybe you can pass along the blessing. Find someone who needs help in something you're good at and help them for no charge."

"That's a great idea!"

"Are you still seeing Danny?"

"Oh, yes. He's spending Christmas with his family again this year."

"I'm sure they realize how fortunate they are. Very few people get the chance they're getting."

"Oh, I know!" It occurred to Robin that if only Danny were there, the day would be perfect, but she didn't want to be selfish, so she tried to put the thought out of her mind. Maybe he'll swing by later, like he did last year, she told herself.

After dinner, they exchanged presents. Robin was very happy with her new clothes, the earrings from Trey and Wren, and the book from Aunt Mari, but she still missed Danny just a little.

After a brief nap, she decided to take a walk to the park. Once there, she walked to the swing set she used to swing on when she was a little girl and just stood there, moving a swing back and forth with her fingers.

"Robin!" She looked up to see a smiling Danny holding a baby of about six months who was wearing a light blue sleeper. "Look who I brought to visit you!"

"He's so cute! Can I hold him?"

"Of course! You're his mother!"

_"What?" _Robin gasped.

"This is Nathaniel. I thought today would be the perfect day for you to meet him."

Robin held her son close, and he grabbed the front of her shirt and hung on. He smelled so sweet.

Tears came to her eyes. "Can I keep him?"

Danny's eyes were mournful as he shook his head. "I was only able to bring him for a little while. I had a very difficult time doing even that. Normally, babies aren't allowed to visit earth at all."

"Why not?"

"Having never known anything but a heavenly existence, even a short time on earth can prove to be very traumatic for them. I'll have to be very careful with him."

"And the reason living people can't visit heaven?"

"Is that they'd find it such a better place to be that they'd refuse to come back, therefore all the things they were meant to accomplish in life wouldn't get done. Haven't you heard the accounts of those who've had near death experiences? Usually they don't want to return, but do so out of a sense of responsibility."

"Can't I at least take him to meet Mom and the others?"

Danny shook his head again. "It would be more than he or the others could handle."

Nathaniel gurgled with delight as she settled him in one of the baby swings. She examined him closely for any resemblances to Bruce and was relieved to see no obvious ones.

"Who takes care of him in heaven?" she asked.

"The main responsibility has fallen to a woman who died in childbirth toward the end of the nineteenth century. She never got to know her own son as a baby, as he entered heaven as an adult casualty of World War I. She's been wanting an assignment like this for many years, and she's thrilled for the opportunity to care for Nathaniel. Others _do _care for him in turn, but she's the main one."

A thought occurred to Robin, one that made her quake inside. "Is Bruce one of those people?"

"No." An expression she'd never seen before crossed Danny's face, one that filled her with unexplained dread. "Bruce is in a dark, lonely place, one where he can never hurt anyone again."

Robin shivered involuntarily, but Nathaniel's happy squeals as he swung back and forth soon took her mind off the subject, and she and Danny took turns pushing the baby in the swing.

"We're almost like a family, aren't we?" asked Robin.

"Almost." Danny's voice was soft.

All too soon, it began to grow dark, and Robin started to shiver. "I guess you have to go back now, don't you?" she asked Danny as he took Nathaniel out of the swing.

Danny sighed. "Unfortunately, yes."

"Can you bring him back again soon?"

"I don't know about that. I had a hard enough time getting permission to bring him this time."

Robin clasped her son's small hand and placed a kiss on his forehead. "Thank you so much for letting me meet him," she told Danny.

"You're very welcome." Danny smiled the smile she'd come to love so well. "There's nothing I enjoy more than making you happy."

"What's the name of the woman who enjoys taking care of him so much?"

Danny hesitated a moment before he answered. "Her name is Hedda."

"And what's her son's name?"

"Ludwig."

Robin considered this for a moment, then understood.


	34. Leah

"Oh, I almost forgot." Danny retrieved something from his pocket. "Here's your Christmas present."

Robin opened the small box to find a pair of earrings that looked like rainbows. "They're beautiful!" she exclaimed. "Thank you!"

"I got you a card as well." On the front of the card was a watercolor of a rainbow. Robin opened it to read the message inside. 'Dear Robin, After the storm comes the rainbow. May your life hold nothing but rainbows from now on. Love, Danny.'

Touched, she embraced him. "I got you something, too. It's back at the house."

"Just give it to me next time I'm over there."

She kissed Nathaniel's cheek, and Danny turned around and was gone. As she returned home, her heart was light as a feather. She knew she'd miss her son, but she also knew that he was happy and loved, and that she'd see him again some day.

She debated whether or not to tell her mother about meeting Nathaniel and in the end decided that she just couldn't bring herself to. Somehow, it seemed a sacred event, one to be cherished by Danny and herself alone.

That night, she dreamed that she, Danny, and Nathaniel were together at the seashore. She was standing with Danny and holding Nathaniel, who giggled every time a wave splashed at their feet, which were partially covered by wet sand.

She felt tremendously depressed when she awakened to find that it had only been a dream.

The evening before New Year's Day, Danny came over, dressed casually in jeans and a polo shirt, the shadow of a mustache over his top lip. He laughed when he saw that Robin couldn't take her eyes off it.

"I remember how you really liked the one I wore to the football game, so I decided to grow one for real," he explained.

"I'm glad. It looks really sexy." She licked her lips. "Now I can give you your Christmas present." She went to the closet and retrieved it. It was a box containing samples of various sausages, cheeses, crackers, spreads, and candies. "I couldn't think of anything else to get you."

"It's the perfect gift." He kissed her lips. "Thank you. Now we have something to snack on while we ring in the new year together. You _are _staying up, aren't you?"

"Of course I am!"

She found it more difficult than she'd thought, however. Although she chose her favorite movies to watch, she dozed off several times, and Danny had to either nudge or tickle her awake.

"Do you really not have to sleep anymore?" she asked him after the last time.

He grinned. "Nope!"

_"Can _you sleep, if you want to?"

"I can still eat, can't I? Although I don't have to anymore, I still enjoy the tastes of the same foods and drinks. It's the same way with sleeping. A nap every once in awhile is nice."

"When you _do _sleep, do you still have dreams?"

"I never have nightmares anymore, but sometimes I have good dreams."

"Am I ever in them?"

He laughed. "You're _always _in them!"

He stopped the movie so they could listen to the countdown on the television, and when it ended, Danny stood and kissed Robin's lips. "Happy New Year, Robin."

"Happy New Year, Danny."

"Now, get some sleep." He gave her rear end a playful swat and then left.

Robin went to sleep imagining that Danny's body was curled around her own in bed.

* * *

The first day of the spring term turned out to be cold and rainy. Robin's mother drove her to school and dropped her off at the entrance, and she pulled her coat around her body close as she entered the school, her breath coming out in little white puffs.

"Hi there."

She turned to see that Danny was walking at her side, smiling at her, and gasped in surprise. "You _never _meet up with me in school!"

"There's someone I want you to meet. See that girl over there?" He pointed to a tall, dark-haired girl who stood apart from the other students. "Her name is Leah, and her family just moved here from Minnesota. She has something called Asperger's syndrome that makes it very hard for her to make friends. I want you to be her friend, Robin. Introduce yourself to her and invite her to do things with you."

Robin took a step toward Leah, and Danny laughed and touched her arm. "Not right now. The bell's about to ring. Later today."

He disappeared, and Robin continued on her way to class.

At lunchtime, Trendi, Ashlynn, and Blake saved her a seat and called her over to their table, like they always did. At the same time, she saw Leah on the other side of the cafeteria, paying for her lunch at the register. She held up a finger to her friends to indicate that she'd join them shortly, then walked over to Leah.

"Hi, Leah!"

Leah was so startled she almost dropped her tray. Her eyes narrowed. "How do you know my name?"

"My friend Danny told me. I'm Robin. Would you like to eat lunch with me and my friends?"

"I guess so." Leah's face registered no emotion at all as she followed Robin back to where her friends were sitting.

"Everybody, this is Leah," Robin announced. The others made room for Leah, and the two girls sat down.

As conversation flowed around the table, Leah concentrated on her food, not saying a word to anyone at all. When lunch was over, the others all went their way, but Robin stayed beside Leah.

"What do you have next?" she asked.

"English with Mrs. French." Instead of looking at Robin, Leah looked down as she replied.

"So do I! That's cool that we're in the same class."

Leah just shrugged.


	35. Stick Up

Robin watched as Leah walked to a seat in the back of the room. Although she usually sat between Riley and Jordan, she walked to the back and sat beside Leah, who seemed completely oblivious to her presence.

Class proceeded as usual until Mrs. French asked the students if they remembered the motivational stickers their teachers had sometimes put on their classwork and homework when they were little. Leah's face instantly came to life, and she waved her hand frantically and started speaking before Mrs. French even had time to call on her.

"Oh, yes! I still love stickers. I have gobs of them at home. I've been collecting them since I was five years old. Some of them are really rare, like my angel stickers from Japan. My Aunt Judy who's in the navy sent those to me. I have some Qbert stickers that were made in 1983, too."

Several students snickered, but Leah seemed not to notice them.

"And then there are my psychedelic mushroom stickers from the early nineteen seventies - "

"All right, Leah, that's about enough. Mrs. French chuckled. "Now, as I was saying, you're all practically adults now and shouldn't have to be reminded of when your assignments are due."

Class ended soon afterwards, and Robin headed for her final class of the day. Leah tagged along beside her.

"I really do have all those stickers I mentioned," she told Robin. "If you'd like to come over to my house this evening, I'll show them to you."

"OK."

Leah gave Robin directions to her house. It turned out she lived about a thirty minute walk from Robin's house. "I'll come over before dinner," Robin promised.

When she entered the house that afternoon, she saw Helen wasn't back from her beauty salon job yet. She left her mother a brief note telling her where she was going, grabbed an apple, and left the house, making sure to lock the front door behind herself.

She arrived at Leah's house to see that it was similar to her own - small and made of wood that was obviously weather-worn. She rang the bell, and a plump woman with colorless short hair and bags under her eyes opened the door.

"H, I'm Robin," she told the woman. "I'm Leah's friend from school."

The woman tilted her head to the left and stepped back so Robin could enter. "She's back there in her room."

Robin walked through the living room to Leah's bedroom. The door was open, so she walked in. Leah was sitting cross-legged on the bed, rocking back and forth. Rows of stickers in neat piles were in front of her, and she stared at them with a grin on her face as she rocked.

"Leah?" asked Robin. The other girl looked up, and her smile vanished. "Why are you doing that?"

"Doing what?"

"Rocking back and forth."

Leah's face blushed a deep red. "I just do that when I'm really excited sometimes," she mumbled.

Robin walked around the bed and sat on its edge. "So are those all your stickers?"

"Gosh, no!" Leah laughed. "These are just my favorites. The rest are in file boxes in the closet, organized according to category." She went to the closet and opened the door, revealing a row of neatly hanging clothes. Two shelves were above the clothes, and each shelf held four file boxes each. On the floor underneath the clothes were six more file boxes. Leah pointed to them in turn. "My animal stickers are in this one - this one has my food stickers - this one, my holiday stickers - "

"But why do you have so many? What do you do with all of them?"

"Sometimes I swap them with other collectors. I belong to sixteen different online sticker clubs, and I've met lots of people that way. Or sometimes, when I get bored or lonely, I just take them out and look at them, or rearrange them."

"Isn't the postage awfully expensive?"

"Not so much if it's inside the U.S.A. I save up my allowance, and sometimes my family members give me money for my birthday or Christmas." Leah began to take the file boxes from the closet one by one and show Robin their contents. The girls were less than halfway through when Leah's mother called her for dinner.

Leah grimaced. "I guess I'll just have to show you the rest of them another time. Thanks for coming over."

"Thanks for inviting me. It was fun."

"I had a friend back in Minnesota. Her name was Abby. I can't believe I've already got a friend here now."

When Robin opened the door, she was alarmed to see that it was almost dark. Leah's enthusiasm had proven to be contagious, and she'd gotten so caught up in looking at stickers with her new friend she'd lost all track of time. With a shiver, she walked down the porch steps and began her journey home.

When she reached the road, she felt a presence beside her and turned to look into Danny's smiling face. "I can't tell you how glad I am to see you!" she exclaimed.

"You didn't seriously think I'd leave you to walk home alone in the dark, did you?" he replied. "How did it go with Leah?"

"All right. I've never known anyone before with anywhere _near _as many stickers as her!" They both laughed.

They were about two thirds of the way to Robin's house when a man dressed all in black with a black ski mask pulled over his face jumped out in front of them and pointed a pistol at them. "Your money or your life!" he growled.

Robin froze in place, but Danny remained calm and kept walking. "Come on, Robin." He reached back for her.

Once Robin got over her initial shock, she saw that the mugger hadn't moved an inch since he'd spoken. Incredulous, she stepped around him and joined Danny, and a few seconds later, she glanced back to see that he was still standing there, frozen in place.

"How'd you do that?" she asked Danny, who merely laughed in response. "Are you just gonna let him stand there forever?"

"Only until the police get there," Danny told her.


	36. The Party

Danny said goodbye to Robin at her front door. When she entered the house, she saw that her mother was eating dinner. Across from her was an untouched plate.

"You're probably gonna have to heat it up," Helen told her daughter. "You must really enjoy this girl's company to have spent so much time with her."

"She was showing me her stickers," Robin replied. "You'd never _believe _how many she has!" She didn't mention the mugger because she didn't want to scare her mother.

Leah sat with Robin and her friends at lunch again the following day and was much more talkative than she'd been before. The group continued to eat together for the rest of that week, and on Friday, Ashlynn slipped Robin a note underneath the table. When Robin got to Mrs. French's class, she opened the note and read it.

'Hey Robin, Blake's having a party at his house tomorrow night, and a bunch of us are going. We'd love for you to join us, just don't bring Leah, OK? See ya later, Ashlynn.'

When Robin got home that evening, she called Ashlynn. "Hey! Can you come tomorrow night?" asked Ashlynn.

"Why don't you want Leah to come?" asked Robin.

Ashlynn sighed. "Oh, Robin, who wants to listen to her go on and on about stickers? Talk about boring!"

"She can't help it, Ashlynn. She has something called Asperger syndrome."

"I don't care. She's no fun, and I don't want her around."

Robin felt depressed as she hung up. She loved hanging out with her friends, but she felt guilty about Leah's being left out. She wondered what Danny would say about the situation.

No sooner had she thought of him than there he stood, smiling at her. Startled, she giggled. "I should be used to that by now," she remarked.

"You know I'll always come whenever you need me," he replied.

"Well, I'm glad you're here, because I have kind of a dilemma."

"Want to talk about it over frozen yogurt?"

The next minute, she found herself at Dee-Lite, where Danny bought her a pina colada frozen yogurt with pineapple chunks and shredded coconut. "Ashlynn invited me to a party at Blake's tomorrow night, but she said Leah wasn't invited because she talks about stickers so much. She _does _talk about them an awful lot."

"Do you mind that?" asked Danny.

"I guess not, but it _does _get tedious sometimes."

"How important is this party to you?"

"Well, I _do _like hanging out with Ashlynn and Blake and the others."

"What if I told you there was something even more fun happening tomorrow night?"

"There is?"

He nodded. "Life Way Church is having game night tomorrow. Why don't you go and take Leah? Everyone will be playing games, so she won't have to struggle to come up with small talk that doesn't involve stickers."

"Are you gonna be there?"

"You bet!"

"That sounds like a great idea! I'll call and invite her as soon as I get back home!"

* * *

Wren and Iceas were eating lunch together when they saw a group of Cosmetology students enter the cafeteria. Shelby was among them. Wren waved and called to her, and she smiled and walked over.

"Let me get my lunch, and I'll come back." She joined the line at the front and returned about fifteen minutes later with a hamburger, fries, and a cola. "Is the food here good?" she asked Wren.

"Not as good as McDonald's or Burger King, but it's edible," Wren replied.

Shelby bit into her hamburger, then nodded in agreement.

"What's your morning been like?" Wren asked after she'd swallowed.

"Absolutely overwhelming! There's just so much to remember! I forgot school was so hard!"

"You'll get through it," said Wren.

"I sure hope so! I don't want to ring up groceries for the rest of my life!"

"My Mom has her own hair salon. She's always enjoyed that kind of work," said Wren.

"It would be cool to have my own salon," Shelby replied. "Maybe someday."

"She had to work really hard to get it going," said Wren. "That was right after Dad died. We were really poor for a long time."

"I've always admired your Mom," said Iceas. "Mine has had to work from time to time when things got tough, but she's never had to completely support the family."

"My Mom hasn't worked at all since she got married," said Shelby. "My Dad never wanted her to. He always said he didn't want people thinking he couldn't support his family."

"That sounds kind of old-fashioned to me," said Iceas.

"Trey told he his family's very traditional," Wren put in.

"That's right, you're Trey's sister, aren't you?" asked Iceas. "How's he doing?"

"All right, I guess," Shelby replied. "I haven't talked to him in a couple of weeks."

"He was fine when we went out Saturday," said Wren.

"Looks like there's gonna be a wedding soon," Iceas said in a singsong voice.

"We haven't even talked about that!" Wren exclaimed.

Iceas just giggled.

* * *

"You mean with a bunch of people I don't even know?" Leah was incredulous.

"You know me," Robin replied. "And the others are all really nice, especially Danny. I can't wait for you to meet him."

"I never know what to say to boys," said Leah.

"Danny isn't just any boy. He's a very special boy."

"Is he your boyfriend?"

"Sort of."

"I've never had a boyfriend before."

"You will someday."

"I've always wanted one really bad. I feel so jealous every time I see a boy and girl walking together holding hands in school."

"I'm sure there's a guy somewhere in the world who's perfect for you. Just be patient and never give up."

Leah sighed.


	37. You Know That Never Mattered To Me

"Leah, this is Danny," said Robin.

"Hi." She didn't meet his eyes.

"Hi, Leah." Danny smiled and extended his hand, and Leah shook it. "It's great to meet you. Are we off, then?"

A few minutes later, they arrived at Life Way Church. A group of teens were already setting up the games. A girl named January looked up and smiled as the trio entered the reception room, where the event was being held.

"January, this is my friend Leah from school," Robin told her.

"I'm so glad you're joining us tonight!" January said to Leah.

"Thanks." Leah gave a shy smile.

"Would you like some refreshments?" asked January. "There's cookies and juice on that table over there."

"Oh, yes!" Leah made a beeline for the snack table. She was still eating when it was time to choose partners to play Pictionary. Almost everyone, including Robin, automatically chose their usual game partner, leaving only a handful of people who hadn't been chosen.

"Leah, why don't you team up with Florian," January suggested. "He's new, too."

Florian was a light-skinned boy with light brown hair and blue eyes. "Hi," he said to Leah.

"Hi," Leah replied. "Um, do you like stickers?"

Florian shrugged. "They're all right, I guess. We just moved here from Virginia. My Dad's in the army. He has been since before I was born. We've lived lots of different places, even overseas. I was born in Germany. That's where he met my Mom, but we moved to the United States before my brother and sister were born."

"I've always wondered what it would be like to have brothers and sisters."

Florian grimaced. "They can be a real pain sometimes."

"But at least you're not so lonely."

"OK guys, are we ready to begin?" asked January.

Danny and Robin looked at one another and smiled.

* * *

One Sunday morning in February, Wren was clearing away the breakfast dishes when she heard the doorbell ring. She looked through the peephole to see a smiling Trey holding a picnic basket. She opened the door. "Wow, you're early!"

"No problem. I'll just watch TV while you get ready. Assuming you want to go to the park for a picnic with me, that is."

"Oh, absolutely! Give me about fifteen minutes to get dressed." She chose black jeans and a black sweater with red hearts all over it, put on her make-up with care, then joined Trey in the living room.

"Actually, I couldn't wait to give you this." He handed her a large pink envelope. She opened it to find a beautiful card with a piano with flower petals all over it. Inside was a message that read 'You hold the key to my heart.' Beneath that, Trey had penned his own message: 'Wren, when I thought my life was over, you gave me reason to keep on living. When I thought all hope was gone, you made me smile again. I will always be indebted to you, and I love you more than words can say. Happy Valentine's Day, darling. Love, Trey.'

"It's beautiful! Thank you!" Tears were in Wren's eyes as she embraced him.

"That's not all," he told her. Next came a huge box of chocolates in assorted flavors and a slinky red negligee.

"Oh, Trey!" Touched, she clung to him. "This is the nicest Valentine's Day I've ever had!" Her mind went back to five years ago. It had been a rainy Monday, and Danny had given her a cute card with a monkey on the front.

She still had it, buried deep beneath other mementos.

"I've got something for you, too." It was a red, pink and white striped hat with a matching sweater for Lucy. He laughed as he hugged and thanked her.

At the park, the air was brisk and refreshing, and a bright sun shone down on the picnickers, rollerbladers, and bikers. "Before I went into the army, I used to spend hours rollerblading in the park every Saturday morning." Trey's voice was soft, pensive, and tinged with melancholy.

"I never learned how," Wren replied. "But I _did _used to ride my bike a lot when I was in high school."

They ate the fried chicken, biscuits, potato salad, coleslaw, and pecan pie Trey had brought, then took turns feeding one another chocolates. "I really meant what I wrote on that card, you know." Trey's voice was gruff.

"I know." Sensing there was more to come, Wren waited for him to continue.

He leaned closer and took her hands into his own. "I want to spend the rest of my life with you, Wren. I've known that for a long time, but I hesitated to tell you because - " He sighed. "Well, I just kept asking myself, what woman would want to be married to a guy with no legs? I mean, my job's OK for now, but it's nothing like what I could have had if I could have stayed in the army and risen up through the ranks. I'm not sure how well I could support a family on the salary I have now."

"Oh, Trey, you know that never mattered to me! I'm gonna have my degree in a couple of years, and then I can get a really high-paying job. Between that and your job, we'll be fine."

"But what about when we have kids? You _do _want them, don't you?"

"Of course I do - eventually. Isn't it a bit early to be worrying about that?"

"I don't want you to have to work after we have kids. They'll need their Mom at home with them."

"Maybe I could work just part time, or we could hire a nanny or something. We'll work _something _out."

Trey just stared into the distance, not saying a word.

"Can't we just worry about that later, Trey?" asked Wren. "It's been such a beautiful day so far. Please, can't we just enjoy being together?"

Trey sighed. "You're right. I'm sorry." He shook his head. "I always end up ruining everything, don't I?"

"You haven't ruined anything at all! We've had a really nice picnic together, and you gave me a beautiful card and delicious chocolate." She winked. "And there's still that negligee for me to try on for you."

He grinned.


	38. Robin's Toothache

"The community college is holding an essay contest for a two-year tuition-free scholarship," Mrs. French announced to her fifth period English class. "Six of you have been selected to compete. Brandon Lebo, Jodie Smith, Tyler Johnson, Robin Cartwright, Keith Durham, and Heather Nord will ride the bus to the college campus after homeroom Wednesday morning. The contest will take place in the English lecture hall, and then the students will return to the high school for lunch."

When Robin met Danny after school that day, she told him about the contest. "It would be great to win," she said. "Mom's worried all year about how she's gonna be able to send me to college. But those other students are all so smart. It would be super hard to write an essay better than theirs."

"You can do it, Robin," Danny replied. "I have faith in you."

Robin chuckled. "I wish I had as much faith in myself as you do in me."

Danny took both her hands and looked into her eyes. "If only you could see yourself like I see you, Robin."

His words warmed her heart but didn't make her feel much more confident.

At home, she told her mother about the contest. "That would certainly solve the problem of how to pay for college next year," Helen replied. "Then all we'd have to worry about would be how to find a car for you to drive." Helen needed her own car to go to work in every day, and they didn't live near a bus stop.

On the morning of the essay contest, Robin woke up with a throbbing toothache. Determined to make it through the morning anyway, she took several extra strength Tylenol and carried on. By the time she arrived at school, the Tylenol had reduced the screaming agony to a dull ache.

After homeroom, she met the other five students at the back of the school, where they boarded a mini bus. Robin found herself seated beside Heather, a plump girl with dark blonde curls, hazel eyes, and a friendly smile.

"Are you nervous?" she asked Robin.

"Kind of. Are you?"

Heather laughed. "I know I don't stand a chance against Keith and Jodie, as smart as they both are. I'm just doing this for fun."

"You might win anyway," said Robin. "You never know."

Heather just laughed again.

As the bus pulled into the college parking lot, Robin's stomach began to churn. She looked around at the other five students. Could she really do this?

The group went into the school and made their way to the lecture hall. Brandon opened the door, and they entered, found seats, and waited.

Eventually, a well-dressed middle-aged woman with perfectly coifed grey hair entered the room and walked to the podium. "You will have one hour to complete your essay," she told the group. "The choices for essay topics are listed on the form which I will now pass out to you. The essay must be written in black ink. All cell phones must be turned off, and no talking is allowed. I wish you all the best."

When Robin received her copy of the essay subject choices, she looked over them carefully. Should people be allowed to keep exotic animals like chimpanzees or tigers as pets? Should students learn about world religions in public schools? Should people with terminal illnesses have the right to doctor assisted suicides? Should children who commit violent crimes be tried as adults? What was the proudest moment of your life? If you could live in a different country, which one would it be?

Robin carefully examined all the questions, chose the one that she thought she could best relate to, and started writing.

She was about two thirds of the way through when suddenly her bad tooth screamed out in agony once more. She tried biting down hard on it, massaging it with her tongue, and pressing her balled fist against her cheek, but nothing helped.

Oh dear God, please no! she begged. How can I ever concentrate on my essay when I'm in such terrible pain?

Taking a deep breath, she tried to force her mind to return to its previous train of thought and succeeded well enough to finish the essay within the allotted time frame. She even had time to glance back over it and make sure there were no spelling or grammatical errors.

She suffered so badly from her toothache she was hardly able to pay attention in any of her classes, and when Danny met her that afternoon, he looked very worried. "Poor baby," he said as he embraced her.

"It's about to drive me crazy." She was near tears. "It started as soon as I woke up this morning. I took some medicine and that helped for awhile, but then it started hurting really bad before I'd even finished the essay. I tried to ignore it and kept working, though."

"How well do you think you did?"

She thought for a moment. "I think I did OK, up until my tooth started hurting so bad, at least. My essay was on teaching different world religions in school. I thought it was a good idea, and I listed the reasons why. The most important one was that it would help people to be more open-minded and tolerant, since after all, none of them can be proven to be the only correct one."

"You're so right," Danny told her. "Heaven is filled with representatives from practically every religion ever practiced. But what will you do about your tooth? You can't just go on going in the kind of pain you're in."

Robin shrugged. "I guess I'll just have to keep taking medicine until it gets better. We sure can't afford a dentist."

"Call Dr. Bagsby. He lets you make payments over time. Mom used to take us to him when we were little."

"I'd hate for Mom to have to pay that kind of money - "

"How would you like to work in my aunt's bookstore? One of her clerks just went on maternity leave. I already talked to her about it. She'd be willing to work around your school hours."

"Really? That would be great! Thank you so much!"

"Hey, what are friends for?"


	39. Senior Prom

"Robin!" Danny's aunt, Beth Dunn, smiled as her newest employee entered the store. "I think I'll have you start by helping Madison put away these new books that just came in this morning."

Madison was a tall, slender blonde who wore glasses. "Why don't you start on that end, and I'll do this?"

"OK." Robin glanced at the book's title. 'Jesus Calling' by Sarah Young.

Dr. Bagsby had pulled her infected tooth just a week before and had agreed to let her pay the bill in installments, as Danny had predicted he would. She'd recovered from the procedure with no complications.

"You're gonna love working here at Beth's Books," Madison told Robin. "I've been here a year already, and it's been great!"

"I'm only temporary, filling in for a woman who went on maternity leave," Robin told her.

"Gabrielle. She told me she wants to take at least six months off, or maybe even longer."

"So it might turn out I can work here for six months or longer? Nobody told me that!"

Madison smiled. "How old are you?"

"Eighteen. I graduate high school in June. How about you?"

"I'm twenty. I'm studying psychology. My fiance's going into law school after college."

"Really? My sister's studying psychology too! She's in California. She went out there with her boyfriend. He wanted to join some new age group. They're not together anymore, but she's still there because she met someone else not too long after they broke up."

The evening passed quickly, and Danny arrived to pick Robin up at the same time Madison's fiance, Seth, arrived to pick her up. "How did it go?" he asked her.

"Great! I like it a lot so far. Your aunt's really nice, and I might get to work here six months or even longer!"

"Glad to hear it." Danny smiled. "I knew you'd do well there. That's why I recommended you for the job. I would take you to Dee-Lite, but tomorrow's a school day."

"That's all right. We can go there Friday night."

The date of the senior prom was announced not too long after that. Robin told Danny about it that afternoon.

"Of course I'll take you," he said. "I never got to attend my own senior prom, you know. Wren went with Gabriel." There was an unmistakable note of sadness in his voice.

"Well, maybe this will make up for it," Robin suggested.

"I have no doubt whatsoever it will."

The night of the prom, Robin put on the deep purple formal she'd bought at a consignment shop with some of the money from her paycheck she'd had left over from paying Dr. Bagsby. She'd had enough left over to buy matching dangling purple earrings, and her mother had done her hair especially nice. She spent about thirty minutes on her make-up, struggling to get it just right.

"Do I look OK?" she asked her mother when she was finished.

"You're beautiful, darling." Helen kissed her daughter's forehead.

Danny arrived wearing a black tuxedo. Not a single hair on his head was out of place.

"Wow!" he exclaimed as he placed her corsage on her wrist.

"You look more angelic than an angel," she replied as she pinned his boutonniere to his tuxedo jacket. He burst out laughing.

"I hope tonight turns out perfect for you," Helen told her daughter as they left.

When they arrived, Robin saw that the lodge was decorated with streamers and banners. Strobe lights and fog machines were going, and Lady Gaga was blasting from the stereo as at least half a dozen couples danced. Danny took Robin's hand and led her onto the dance floor, and they began to move to the beat.

More couples arrived as they danced, and then 'If You're Not the One' by Daniel Bedingfield began to play. Danny's arm went around Robin's waist, and she rested her head on his shoulder as her hand slid into his.

As they moved together, Robin saw that Leah and Florian were also dancing with one another. In her heart, she was glad she'd befriended Leah and invited her to game night at the church.

After awhile, they got tired of dancing and sat down at one of the tables. Leah and Florian joined them. "You look so beautiful!" Leah told Robin.

"So do you," Robin replied. Leah was wearing a light pink formal with a matching headband over her braided hair. "And you look so happy! I can't believe how shy you used to be!"

"It's funny, but I don't feel shy when I'm with Florian," Leah replied. "We talk on the phone all the time, and I can't believe how much we have in common!"

"Danny and I are going to Dee-Lite after the prom is over. Would you like to meet us there?"

Leah looked at Florian. "That sounds like fun," he said.

Robin and Danny stayed at the prom until most of the others had left, and so did Florian and Leah. They left for Dee-Lite at about the same time, although of course Danny and Robin got there first.

As they sat together in a booth, enjoying their frozen treats, Robin asked Florian what high school he attended, and he told her. "That's where Bailey goes!" she exclaimed. "Do you know her?"

"Bailey Anderson? Sure I do. She was in a couple of my classes this year. Why?"

"I stayed with her family for the fall term of my junior year. Then I moved back in with my Mom and we lost touch. I haven't seen her in awhile. How's she been?"

"OK, I guess. I don't really talk to her much. I remember when her sister was still alive. They were both in my ninth grade English class. They used to play tricks on teachers all the time, pretending to be each other. It was over the Christmas holiday that year that Britney was killed. None of us could believe it when the teacher told us on the first day back in January."

"That's terrible!" Leah exclaimed.

"It sure was," Florian agreed.

By the time they left Dee-Lite, it was almost two in the morning. "How long have you had this car?" Leah asked Florian as he drove her home afterwards.

"It's actually my Dad's car," he told her. "He let me borrow it for tonight. I'll have to buy my own car before I start college next year."

Soon he pulled up in front of her house, then walked her to the door. "Well, thanks for a wonderful night," she told him.

"You're welcome. Uh, have you ever been kissed?"

She blushed a deep crimson. "No. have you?"

"No," he whispered, beginning to fidget. "Uh, would you like to right now?"

"OK." Slowly he leaned toward her until their lips met.


	40. Forever

"The community college called earlier," Helen told Robin one day after she'd come home from school. "You won the two-year scholarship."

"All right!" Robin crowed. "Now the only thing we have to worry about is how I'm gonna get there and back."

"I checked into that," Helen replied. "There's a bus stop about five miles from here. I could drop you off there on my way to work every morning and pick you up every evening on my way home. You might have to stay on campus several hours after your last class some days, and it would mean a long ride on the bus, but if there was no other way, it might work out."

"I'm just so happy to get the scholarship, I'm not even worried about that right now," Robin replied. On honors day, she got a reward for her high grades in English, and Trey and Wren came from California to watch her graduate. Aunt Mari was there too, and as Robin walked to the front to receive her diploma, she knew they were all watching her, proud of her accomplishments, and Danny was the happiest of all.

When the ceremony was over and the graduates had thrown their caps into the air, she ran right into his arms, and he gave her a fierce hug. For several minutes it was just the two of them, and then he looked into her eyes. "Congratulations, Robin. You've done something I never did - graduate high school."

"Oh yeah, that's right!" Robin didn't know what else to say.

"It's all right." Danny grinned. "I'm proud of you, Robin. You've come a long way since you were that frightened girl I found who wanted to end it all. I know you're going to go far in life, and I wish you the best."

Something in his tone caused a prickling sensation down her spine. "Things will still be the same, won't they? I mean - we'll still go out every weekend, won't we?"

Danny shook his head. "It wouldn't be fair to you. You're a living mortal, Robin - a woman who deserves opportunities I can't give you. If things continue as they are, you'll only be held back. You have a destiny to fulfill, but I won't disappear from your life completely. Any time you need me, all you have to do is call."

"Oh, Danny..." She began to cry.

"Hey now, none of that." He embraced her and held her close. "This is a day for celebration, remember? There's no reason to be sad."

She gave him a weak smile. "I guess you're right."

He laughed. "Of course I'm right!" He held her face between his hands and placed a soft kiss on her lips. "Goodbye, Robin."

"Goodbye, Danny."

One Month Later

Helen knocked on her daughter's bedroom door. "Robin! Company!"

Robin emerged from the room to see Florian and Leah standing in the living room, smiling. They both wore swimsuits.

"We were wondering if you'd like to come swimming with us," said Leah.

"Sure. Just let me get my swimsuit on." She went back into her bedroom and emerged a few minutes later wearing her new purple swimsuit.

"That's pretty." Leah smiled but didn't meet Robin's eyes.

"Thanks."

"Ready to go?" asked Florian.

"Sure," Robin replied.

The three of them walked outside to Florian's father's car, which was a 1998 Pontiac LeMonz. "Any luck in finding a car for college?" Robin asked him.

"Nope. You?"

"A girl at the bookstore has a ten-year-old Honda Civic she's trying to sell. She wants three thousand for it, and that's more than I have, but I'm gonna see if she'll come down on the price."

"I wish I had a job," said Leah.

"I'll ask if there are any openings at the bookstore," Robin told her.

Having fun with her friends, Robin felt the melancholy that had settled over her for the past month finally lift. "This reminds me of the summer I was thirteen," she told Florian and Leah. "Wren and I had just gotten out of school for the summer, and Mom brought us here for a picnic. Danny - " Her throat closed up, and she couldn't finish.

"You must really miss him," said Leah. Robin nodded.

"Too bad he couldn't stay," Florian remarked. "He seemed like a really nice guy."

Suddenly Robin no longer felt like swimming and splashing around in the water.

That Saturday was bright and sunny, just like the day Danny died. Robin decided to walk to the park, but her feet must have had other plans, as she soon found herself headed for the cemetery. Once there, she automatically started upon the familiar path toward the grave she'd visited so many times.

Except that it was no longer there. In the space where a marker and a vase for flowers had been, there was nothing but grass. What happened? Robin's breath caught in her throat. Am I going crazy?

A Bible verse from that year's Easter service at Life Way Church came to her. Why seek ye the living among the dead?

She looked up, and sure enough, there he was, walking toward her. Although he looked the same as he always had before, she sensed he was different now. She couldn't quite explain how.

"They all said it was a miracle I survived," he said to her. "By all rights, I should be dead right now. One thing's for sure: I'll never, ever ride with Becker when he's been drinking again."

It hit her like a bolt of lightning. Did she dare hope?

"You mean - are you back to stay this time?"

He looked puzzled. "I never left!"

* * *

They were married right before college classes started in August. All the family members were there. Mrs. Greer and Molly cried, but this time, they cried tears of joy. As Danny slipped the ring onto her finger, Robin felt an electric thrill flow through her body. Danny was hers now, and she was his, for as long as they both lived.

She glanced at Wren to see that she was standing with Trey and they were both smiling. Suddenly what had happened between Danny and Wren no longer mattered. It was in the distant past, and that's where it would stay.

The first night of their married life was spent in a cozy bed and breakfast in their hometown. For Robin, who'd never even spent the night in a motel room before, it was a completely new and different experience. And to be sharing it with Danny, the man she loved!

He kissed her like he had in Venice, but this time there was no hesitation, no apologies. As they kissed, his hands caressed her, and she felt all apprehension leave her, to be replaced with desire at the new and exquisite sensations.

It was nothing at all like it had been with Bruce. Instead of pain and humiliation, there was tenderness and warmth, a blissful union of their two souls, a healing balm poured out over all her pain, vanquishing it, until all that remained was the most profound peace and love.

Ten Years Later

The two couples sat together on the quilt they'd brought to the park and spread beneath the trees.

"So how are sales on your latest book?" Trey asked Danny as he poured tea into a plastic cup and added a lemon slice.

"Pretty good so far." Danny leaned back against a tree, resting his hands behind his head while he stretched his legs and wiggled his toes. "We make a pretty good team, don't we, hon?"

"As an author and illustrator working together, I'd say we make a formidable force!" Robin agreed. They both laughed.

"Can I have another cookie, Mommy?" asked six-year-old Piper Danielle Greer. She was tall and slender like her father and had brown hair and eyes like her mother.

"Here you go." Robin handed her daughter another sugar cookie.

"Thanks!"

"Can I have one too?" asked her cousin. Summer Wren Whittaker was also six but was almost a head shorter and had blue eyes instead of brown.

"Hey! I thought we were playing catch!" protested eight-year-old Hunter Trey Whittaker. He had brown hair and hazel eyes.

"I just got hungry." Piper popped the last bite of cookie into her mouth. "I'll play with you now."

"They're growing up so fast, aren't they?" Wren remarked.

"Just enjoy it while you can," said Trey.

Later, Robin tucked Piper into bed after her bedtime story. "I wish I had a big brother too, like Summer," the little girl told her mother.

"You do have a big brother," Robin replied after careful consideration. "His name is Nathaniel, and he lives in heaven. You'll meet him some day."

"But why can't I meet him now?"

"Sweetheart, you know when people go to heaven, they stay there, unless there's a special reason for them to come back. You might have to wait a really long time, but I promise you, you will meet him some day."

"OK, Mommy." Piper closed her eyes and went to sleep, and Robin returned to her own bedroom.

"I told her about Nathaniel," she told Danny as she cuddled with him in bed.

"What did she say?"

"She wanted to meet him now, and I told her she'd have to wait until the time was right."

"How did she take that?"

"She didn't say anything else about it."

"Sounds like it's not a problem, then. She'll understand it better when she's older."

As Robin drifted off to sleep, secure in her husband's arms, she wondered how much of the time her husband had spent in heaven he remembered. He never talked about it at all, not even with her. She knew he'd made the tremendous sacrifice of exchanging his immortal life for the opportunity to stay with her, to share her life and grow old with her, because of his deep love for her. She'd never understand how he'd done it, but she'd be grateful forever.


End file.
